this great huge masse that framed and guideth all the waters that set vp the sunne as the worlds clearest light and gaue it congruent act and motion c that taketh not all power from the spirits infernall that afforded nourishment moist or dry vnto euery creature according to the temperature that founded the earth and maketh it fertill that giueth the fruites thereof to men and beasts that knowes and orders all causes principall and secondary that giueth the moone her motion and hath set downe waies in heauen and earth to direct our change of place that hath grac'd the wit he created with arts and sciences as ornaments to nature that instituted copulation for propagation sake that gaue men the vse of the earthly fire to meet by and vse in their conuentions Tâ—…se â—…re the things that learned Varro either from others doctrine or his owne 〈◊〉 striueth to ascribe vnto the selected Gods by a sort of I wotte nere 〈◊〉 â—…aiurall interpretations L. VIVES WHâ—… a two parts Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heauen and earth Which 〈◊〉 make the whole world including in heauen all things celestiall in earth all things mortall b And now An Epilogue of all the gods powers which he hath disputed of c That taketh Read Iob. 40. 41. of the deuills power from God The meanes to discerne the Creator from the creatures and to auoyde the worshipping of so many gods for one because there are so many powers in one CHAP. 30. BVt these are the operation of one onely and true God yet as one the saâ—…e god in all plaâ—… all in all not included in place not confined to locall quaâ—…tie â—…sible and immutable filling heauen and earth with his present power His nature a needing no helpe So doth he dispose of all his workes of creation â—…t each one hath the peculiar motion permitted it For though it can doe noâ—… without him yet is not any thing that which he is He doth much by his Angeâ—… 〈◊〉 onely he maketh them also blessed So that imagine he do send his Angelâ—…â—…o 〈◊〉 for some causes yet he maketh not the men blessed by his Angels bâ—… by hiâ—… selfe he doth the angels from this true and euerlasting God and from noâ—…â—…ther hope we for life eternall L. VIVES 〈◊〉 Nâ—…ding as the other gods do that must be faine to haue assistance in their faculty poweâ—… The Peeâ—…r benefits besides his coâ—…on bounty that God bestoweth vpon his seruants CHAP. 26. FOr of him besides these benefits whereof wee haue spoken partly such as 〈◊〉 left to the administration of nature and bestowed both vpon good and bad wee 〈◊〉 a particular bounty of his loue perticular only to the good for although we 〈◊〉 neuer yeeld him sufficient thankes for our being life sence and vnderstanding of him yet for that he hath not forsaken vs when we were inuolued in sinne turâ—…d away from his contemplation and blinded with loue of blacke iniquity for that 〈◊〉 hath sent vs his Word his onely Sonne by whose incarnation and extrâ—… passion for vs we might conceiue how a dearely god esteemed vs and 〈◊〉 singuler sacrifice bee purged from our guilt and by the illumination of 〈◊〉 spirit in our hears tread downe all difficulties and ascend to that eternall 〈◊〉 ineffable sweetnes of his contemplation what heart how many tounges 〈◊〉 to returne sufficient thankes for this last benefit L. VIVES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dearely Rom. 8. 32. Who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all to death c. 〈◊〉 That the Mistery of our redemption by Christ was not obscure in the precedent times but continually intimated in diuers significations CHAP. 32. 〈◊〉 Mistery of Eternall life euen from the first originall of mankinde was 〈◊〉 the angells declared vnto such as God voutchsafed by diuers signes 〈◊〉 â—…all shadowes congruent to the times wherin they were shewed And 〈◊〉 â—…ebrewes being gathered into a common wealth to keepe the memory 〈◊〉 â—…ty had diuers that prophecied the things that should fall out from the 〈◊〉 of Christ vnto a this very day some of which Prophets b vnderstood 〈◊〉 â—…cies and some did not Afterwards they were pispersed amongst the 〈◊〉 leaue them c the testimony of the scriptures which promised eâ—…ernal 〈◊〉 Iesus Christ for not only al the Prophecies which were in words 〈◊〉 â—…epts which had reference to actions and manners were therein conâ—… but all their sacrifices also the Priesthoods temple or tabernacle altars â—…ies feasts and what euer hath reference to that diuine worship of God 〈◊〉 presages and propheticall significations of that eternall life bestowed by 〈◊〉 all which we now beleeue either are fulfilled or see are now in fulfilling 〈◊〉 shal be fulfilled hereafter in him L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a this very day For the Prophecies are not yet at an end and though the summe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all were fuâ—…filled in Christ yet by him diuers things since are to come to passe 〈◊〉 particularly beene intimated in the prophecies as that not in one prophet onely 〈◊〉 â—…ring together of the dispersed Israell at the end of the world b Understood All 〈◊〉 â—…phets vnderstood not their prophecies nor did those that vnderstood part vnderâ—… 〈◊〉 they spoake not them-selues but by Gods inspiraâ—…ion whose counselles they 〈◊〉 fully acquainted with nor did God vse them as men skilfull in future euents but 〈◊〉 as hee ment to speake to the poeple by yet deny we not but that the summe of all their 〈◊〉 thâ—…ing of the Messias was reuealed to them by God almighty The gentiles 〈◊〉 of opinion that the Sybills and the other Prophets vnderstood not all their presages 〈◊〉 â—…ey spake them at such times as they were rapt beyond their reason and hauing put 〈◊〉 proper mindes were filled with the deity And therefore Iamblicus saith that the 〈◊〉 and sober that the Sibilles and prophets are in their prophecying the dasker and obscurer their prophecies are and then they speake plainely and clearly when they are wholy Enthusiasticall In mysteriis c The testimonie That the scriptures might be dispersed throughout the world wherein the consequents of Christs comming and suffering were so plainely described that none that had seene or heard of Christs life and doings could deny that he it waâ—…of whom they were prophecied That Christianity onely is of power to lay open the Deuills subtilty and delight in illuding of ignorant men CHAP. 33. THis onely true religion is of power to lay open that the Gentiles gods are most vncleane spirits desiring vpon the occasion of some departed soules or vnder the shapes of some earthly creatures to bee accounted gods and in their proud impurity taking pleasure in those obscaenities as in diuine honours maligning the conuersion of all mens soules vnto the true God From whose beastly and abhominable tyranny a man then getteth free when hee layeth his beliefe vpon him who by his rare example of humillity declared from what height and
videri aut tangi quod careat solido Solidum autem nihil quod terrae sit expers quamobrem mundâ—… efficere moliens deus terram primam ignemque iungebat The same is Tymaeus his opinion in his work De Mundo anima f He meaneth Plato said heauen was of fire the stars of the â—…oure elements because they seemâ—…d more solid But he held not heauen of the nature of our fire for he held fires of diuers nature g Two meanes Water and fire must needs haue a meane of coherence But solid bodies are hardly reconciled by one meane but must haue two which may of theÌ„selues their accidents compose a conuenient third such is water ayre between fire earth for water to earth ayre to fire beare the same proportion and so doth water and ayre betweene themselues which combination rules so in the elements that in the ascending and descending innumerable and imperceptible variations of nature all seemes but one body either rarified vnto fire or condensate vnto earth h Ayre is a spirit But not of God of this hereafter i I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perticiple as one should say I am he that is For wee can not transtate it by one word as Seneca affirmeth Epist. lib. 8. But wee may call it Ens of sâ—… as Caesar did being of to bee as potent of possum So did Sergius Quintil. GOD meaneth thâ—… hee hath beeing whereas as nothing else hath properly any beeing but are as Isayas saith of nothing and Iob hath it often GOD onely hath beeing the rest haue not their existencâ—… saith Seneca because they are eternall themselues but because their maker guardeth them and should hee disist they would all vanish into nothing Plato also sayth that corporal things neuer haue true beeing but spirituall haue In Timeo Sophista And there and iâ—… his Parmenides hee saith that GOD is one and Ens of whom all things depend that â—…ature hath not a fitte expressiue name for his Excellence nor can hee bee defined 〈◊〉 ascribed nor knowne nor comprehended that hee begotte all these lesser goâ—… whom in his Tymaeus he saith are immortall only by their fathers wil not by their own power Him hee calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as he saith of a true Philosopher in his Phaedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he conceiueth him which is and a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertake of them which is and in his Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eternall beeing vnbegotten And all the Platonists agree that the title of his Parmenides De ente vno rerum prinoipio and of his Sophista 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are both ment of GOD which is the true being and the beginning of all things and 〈◊〉 being a perticile is of the presentence sâ—…gnifying that GOD hath no time past nor to come but with him all is present and so his beeing is That he saith in his Tymeus Time hath parâ—…es past present and to come and these times of our diuiding are by our error falsely ascribed to the diuine essence and vnmeetely For wee vse to say hee was is and wil be but indâ—…ed he onely is properly and truely was and wil be belong to things that arise and proceede according to the times and with them For they are two motions but the onely Lord of eternâ—…ty hath no motion nor is elder nor hath beene younger nor hath not beene hitherto or shall not bee hereafter nor feeleth any affect of a corporall bodie but those partes past and to come are belonging to time that followeth eternity and are species of that which mooueth it selfe according to number and space Thus much out of Timaeus hee that will reade the author let him looke till hee finde these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. there this sentence beginneth Gregory vsed part of it in his Sermon of the birth of Christ and handled it largely in that place GOD was alwaies and is and shal be saith he nay rather God is alwaies was and shal be are parts of our time and defects in nature But hee is eternally beeing and so he told Moyses when hee asked him his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then hee beginnes to mount and with diuine eloquence to spread the lustre of GODS eternity and inmutability but this worthy man is faine to yeeld vnder so huge a burden and shut his eyes dazeled wiâ—…h so fiery a splendor Plutarch tells that on one poste of the Temples dore at Delphos was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy selfe and on the other 〈◊〉 thou art the first hauing reference to our preparation in matters of diuinity and the later vnto GODS nature which is alwaies sixt and firme whereas ours is fluxe and mutable Wherefore it may well bee said of him whose nature is not subiect to any alteration of time but alâ—…aies fixed and vnalterable thou art Thou art may also bee referred vnto the vnmoueable eternity without any respect of the time as Plato saith in his Parmenides who will not haue the time present made an attribute of GOD because it is a time nor will haue him called an essence but rather somewhat inexplicable aboue all essence to know what it is not is easie but what it is impossible Some thinke that Parmenides himselfe in his Philosophicall poeme meaneth of GOD there where hee saith all things are but one and so thought Symplicius for it is vnlike that so sharpe a wit as Parmenides found not the difference and multitude of things which hee setteth plainely downe in his poemes For hauing spoken largely of that onely Ens hee concludeth thus Thus much of the true high things now concerning the confused and mortall thing in which is much error Aristotle through desire to reprehend eâ—…roniously traduceth his opinion in his Physikes which Themistius toucheth at Parmenides saith he did not thinke an accident that hath existence but from another to bee the Ens hee meant of but hee spoke of the Ens which is properly especially and truely so which is indeed no other but Plato his very Ens. Nay what say you to Aristotle that saith himselfe that Parmenides ment of that one Ens which was the originall of all The other Platonists opinions I haue already related Now as for that sentence so common against them that the things intelligible onely not the sensible haue existence Alcymus in his worke to Amynthas declarâ—…th that Plato had both it and that of the Idea's out of Epicharmus his bookes and alledgeth the words of Epicharmus himselfe who was a Philosopher of Coos a Phythagorean who held that learning made a man as farre more excellent then others as the suâ—…ne excells the starres and all other light and the sea the riuers Plato himselfe in his Sophista auerreth the antiquity of that opinion that affirmed the essence of intelligibilities onely and that therevpon arose
eldest holds them resolued into most pure ayre which S. Thomas dislikes for such bodies could neuer penetrate the fire nor the heauens But he is too Aristotelique thinking to binde incomprehensible effectes to the lawes of nature as if this were a worke of nature strictly taken and not at the liberty of GODS omnipotent power or that they had forced through fire and heauen by their condensed violence Some disliked the placing of an element aboue heauen and therefore held the Christalline heauens composed of waters of the same shew but of a farre other nature then the Elementary Both of them are transparent both cold but that is light and ours heauy Basill sayth those waters doe coole the heate of the heauens Our Astronomicall diuines say that Saturnes frigidity proceedeth from those waters ridiculous as though all the starres of the eighth spere are not cooler then Saturne These waters sayth Rede are lower then the spirituall heauens but higher then all corporeall creatures kept as some say to threaten a second deluge But as others hold better to coole the heate of the starres De nat◅rer But this is a weake coniecture Let vs conclude as Augustine doth vpon Genesis How or what they are we know not there they are we are sure for the scriptures authority weigheth downe mans witte c In stead of Another question tossed like the first How the elements are in our bodies In parcels and Atomes peculiar to each of the foure saith Anaxagoras Democritus Empedocles Plato Cicero and most of the Peripatetiques Arabians Auerroes and Auicen parcels enter not the bodies composition sayth another but natures only This is the schoole opinion with the leaders Scotus and Occam Aristole is doubtfull as hee is generally yet holdes the ingresse of elements into compoundes Of the Atomists some confound all making bodies of coherent remaynders Others destroy all substances Howsoeuer it is wee feele the Elementary powers heate and drought in our gall or choller of the fire heate and moysture ayry in the blood colde and moyst watery in the fleame Colde and dry earthly in the melancholly and in our bones solydity is earth in our brayne and marrow water in our blood ayre in our spirits cheefely of the heart fire And though wee haue lesse of one then another yet haue some of each f But there And thence is all our troublesome fleame deriued Fitly it is seated in the brayne whether all the heate aspyreth For were it belowe whither heate descendeth not so it would quickly growe dull and congeale Whereas now the heate keepes it in continuall acte vigor and vegetation Finis lib. II. THE CONTENTS OF THE twelfth booke of the Citty of God 1. Of the nature of good and euil Angells 2. That no essence is contrary to God though al the worlds frailty seeme to bee opposite vnto this immutable eternity 3. Of gods enemies not by nature but will which hurting them hurteth their good nature because there is no vice but hurteth nature 4. Of vselesse and reason-lesse natures whose order differeth not from the Decorum held in the whole vniuerse 5. That the Creator hath deserued praise in euery forme and kind of Nature 6. The cause of the good Angels blisse and the euills misery 7. That wee ought not to seeke out the cause of the vicious will 8. Of the peruerse loue wherby the soule goeth from the vnchangeable to the changeable good 9. Whether he that made the Angels natures made their wils good also by the infusion of his loue into them through his holy Spirit 10. Of the falsenes of that History that saith the world hath continued many thousand years 11. Of those that hold not the Eternity of the world but either a dissolution and generation of innumerable worlds or of this one at the expiration of certaine yeares 12. Of such as held Mans Creation too lately effected 13. Of the reuolution of Tymes at whose expiration some Phylosophers held that the Vniuerse should returne to the state it was in at first 14. Of Mans temporall estate made by God out of no newnesse or change of will 15. Whether to preserue Gods eternall domination we must suppose that he hath alwaies had creatures to rule ouer and how it may bee held alwaies created which is not coeternall with God 16. How wee must vnderstand that God promised Man life eternall before all eternity 17. The defence of Gods vnchanging will against those that fetch Gods works about frō eternity in circles from state to state 18. Against such as say thinges infinite are aboue Gods knowledge 19. Of the worlds without end or Ages of Ages 20. Of that impious assertion that soules truly blessed shall haue diuer s reuolutions into misery againe 21. Of the state of the first Man and Man-kinde in him 22. That God fore-knew that the first Man should sin and how many people he was to translate out of his kind into the Angels society 23. Of the nature of Mans soule being created according to the Image of God 24. Whether the Angels may bee called Creators of any the least creature 25. That no nature or forme of any thing liuing hath any other Creator but God 26. The Platonists opinion that held the Angels Gods creatures Man the Angels 27. That the fulnesse of Man-kind was created in the first Man in whome God fore-saw both who should bee saued and who should bee damned FINIS THE TVVELFTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the nature of good and euill Angels CHAP. 1. BEfore I speake of the creation of man wherein in respect of mortall reasonable creatures the two Citties had their originall as we shewed in the last booke of the Angels to shew as well as wee can the congruity and conuenience of the society of Men with Angels and that there are not foure but rather two societies of Men and Angels qualitied alike and combined in eyther the one consisting both of good Angels and Men and the other of euill that the contrariety of desires betweene the Angels good and euill arose from their diuers natures and beginnings wee may at no hand beleeue God hauing beene alike good in both their creations and in all things beside them But this diuersity ariseth from their wils some of them persisting in God their common good and in his truth loue and eternity and other some delighting more in their owne power as though it were from them-selues fell from that common al-blessing good to dote vppon their owne and taking pride for eternity vayne deceit for firme truth and factious enuy for perfect loue became proud deceiptfull and enuious The cause of their beatitude was their adherence with GOD their must their miseries cause bee the direct contrary namely their not adherence with GOD. Wherefore if when wee are asked why they are blessed and wee answere well because they stucke fast vnto GOD and beeing asked why they
inextinguible lampe This they may obiect to put vs to our plunges for if wee say it is false wee detract from the truth of our former examples and if wee say it is true wee shall seeme to avouch a Pagan deity But as I sayd in the eighteenth booke we need not beleeue all that Paganisme hath historically published their histories as Varro witnesseth seemeing to conspire in voluntary contention one against an other but wee may if we will beleeue such of their relations as doe not contradict those bookes which wee are bound to beleeue Experience and sufficient testimony shall afford vs wonders enow of nature to conuince the possibility of what we intend against those Infidells As for that lampe of Venus it rather giueth our argument more scope then any way suppresseth it For vnto that wee can adde a thousand strange things effected both by humane inuention and Magicall operation Which if wee would deny we should contradict those very bookes wherein wee beleeue Wherefore that lampe either burned by the artificiall placing a of some Asbest in it or it was effected by b art magike to procure a religious wonder or else some deuill hauing honour there vnder the name of Venus continued in this apparition for the preseruation of mens misbeleefe For the c deuills are allured to inhabite some certaine bodies by the very creatures of d God and not their delighting in them not as other creatures doe in meates but as spirits doe in characters and signes ad-apted to their natures either by stones herbes plants liuing creatures charmes and ceremonies And this allurement they doe sutly entice man to procure them either by inspiring him with the secrets thereof or teaching him the order in a false and flattering apparition making some few schollers to them and teachers to a many more For man could neuer know what they loue and what they loathe but by their owne instructions which were the first foundations of arte Magike And then doe they get the fastest hold of mens hearts which is all they seeke and glory in when they appeare like Angells of light How euer their workes are strange and the more admired the more to be avoided which their owne natures doe perswade vs to doe for if these foule deuills can worke such wonders what cannot the glorious angells doe then Nay what cannot that GOD doe who hath giuen such power to the most hated creatures So then if humane arte can effect such rare conclusions that such as know them not would thinke them diuine effects as there was an Iron Image hung e in a certaine temple so strangely that the ignorant would haue verely beleeued they had seene a worke of GODS immediate power it hung so iust betweene two loade-stones whereof one was placed in the roofe of the temple and the other in the floore without touching of any thing at all and as there might be such a tricke of mans art in that inextinguible lampe of Venus if Magicians which the scriptures call sorcerers and enchanters can doe such are exploytes by the deuills meanes as Virgil that famous Poet relateth of an Enchantresse in these words f Haec se carminibus promittit soluere mentes Quas velit ast aliis dur as immittere curas Sistere aquam fluuiis vertere sydera retrò Nocturnosque ciâ—…t manes mugire videbis Sub pedibus terram descendere montibus Ornos She said her charmes could ease ones heart of paine Euen when she list and make him greeue againe Stop flouds bring back the stars and with her breath Rouse the black fiends vntill the earth beneath Groan'd and the trees came marching from the hills c. If all this bee possible to those how much more then can the power of GOD exceed them in working such things as are incredible to infidelity but easie to his omnipotency who hath giuen vertues vnto stones witte vnto man and such large power vnto Angells his wonderfull power exceedeth all wonders his wisdome permitteth and effecteth all and euery perticular of them and cannot hee make the most wonderfull vse of all the parts of that world that hee onely hath created L. VIVES PLacing a of some Asbest Or of a kinde of flaxe that will neuer bee consumed for such there is Plin. lib. 19. Piedro Garsia and I saw many lampes of it at Paris where wee saw also a napkin of it throwne into the middest of a fire and taken out againe after a while more white and cleane then all the sope in Europe would haue made it Such did Pliny see also as hee saith himselfe b By art magique In my fathers time there was a tombe â—…ound wherein there burned a lampe which by the inscription of the tombe had beene lighted therein the space of one thousand fiue hundered yeares and more Beeing touched it fell all to dust c Deuills are allured Of this reade more in the eight and tenth bookes of this present worke and in Psell. de Daem d And not theirs The Manichees held the deuills to bee the creators of many things which this denieth e In a certaine temple In the temple of Serapis of Alexandria Rufâ—…n Hist. Eccl. lib. 21. f Haee se Aeneid 4. Gods omnipotency the ground of all beleefe in things admired CHAP. 7. VVHy then cannot a GOD make the bodies of the dead to rise againe and the damned to suffer torment and yet not to consume seeing hee hath filled heauen earth ayre and water so full of inumerable miracles and the world which hee made beeing a greater miracle then any it containeth But our aduersaries beleeuing a God that made the world and the other gods by whom he gouerneth the world doe not deny but auoutch that there are powers that effect wonders in the world either voluntarily or ceremonially and magically but when wee giue them an instance wrought neither by man nor by spirit they answere vs it is nature nature hath giuen it this quality So then it was nature that made the Agrigentine salt melt in the fire and crackle in the water Was it so this seemes rather contrary to the nature of salt which naturally dissolueth in water and crakleth in the fire I but nature say they made this perticular salt of a quality iust opposite Good this then is the reason also of the heare and cold of the Garamantine fountaine and of the other that puts out the torch and lighteth it againe as also of the Aâ—…beste and those other all which to reherse were too tedious There is no other reason belike to bee giuen for them but such is their nature A good briefe reason verely and b a sufficient But GOD beeing the Authour of all nature why then doe they exact a stronger reason of vs when as wee in proouing that which they hold for an impossibility affirme that it is thus by the will of Almighty GOD who is therefore called Almighty because hee can doe all that hee will hauing created so
that sorrow in the Scriptures though it be not expressed so yet it is vnderstood to bee a fruitlesse repentance conâ—…oyned with a corporall torment for the scripture saith the vengeance of the flesh of the wicked is fire and the worme hee might haue said more briefely the vengance of the wicked why did hee then ad of the flesh but to shew that both those plagues the fire and the worme shal be corporall If hee added it because that man shal be thus plagued for liuing according to the flesh for it is therefore that hee incurreth the second death which the Apostle meaneth of when hee saith If yee liue after the flesh yee die but euery man beleeue as hee like either giuing the fire truely to the body and the worme figuratiuely to the soule or both properly to the body for we haue fully proued already that a creature may burne and yet not consume may liue in paine and yet not dye which he that denyeth knoweth not him that is the author of all natures wonders that God who hath made all the miracles that I erst recounted and thousand thousands more and more admirable shutting them all in the world the most admirable worke of all Let euery man therefore choose what to thinke of this whether both the fire and the worme plague the body or whether the worme haue a metaphoricall reference to the soule The truth of this question shall then appeare plaine when the knowledge of the Saints shall bee such as shall require no triall of it but onely shal be fully satisfied and resolued by the perfection and plenitude of the diuine sapience We know but now in part vntill that which is perfect be come but yet may wee not beleeue those bodies to be such that the fire can worke them no anguish nor torment L. VIVES THeir a worme Is. 66. 24. this is the worme of conscience Hierome vpon this place Nor is there any villany saith Seneca how euer fortunate that escapeth vnpunished but is plague to it selfe by wringing the conscience with feare and distrust And this is Epicurus his reason to proue that man was created to avoyd sinne because hauing committed it it scourgeth the conscience and maketh it feare euen without all cause of feare This out of Seneca â—…pist lib. â—…6 And so singeth Iuuenall in these words Exemplo quodâ—…unque malo committitur ipsi Dâ—…splicet auctori prima est haec vltio quòd se Iudice nemo nocens absoluitur c. Each deed of mischiefe first of all dislikes The authout with this whip Reuenge first strikes That no stain'd thought can cleare it selfe c. And by and by after Cur tamen hos tuâ—… Euasisse putes quos diriconscia facti Mens habet â—…ttionitos surdo verbere caedit Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum Poena autem vehemens multo saeuior illis Quas Ceditius grauis inuenit Rhadamanthus Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem But why should you suppose Them free whose soule blackt ore with ougly deeds Affrights and teares the conscience still and feeds Reuenge by nousling terrour feare and warre Euen in it selfe O plagues farre lighter farre To beare guilts blisters in a brest vnsound Then Rhadamant or sterne Ceditius found Nay the conscience confoundeth more then a thousand witnesses Tully holdes there are no other hell furies then those stings of conscience and that the Poets had that inuention from hence In l. Pis. Pro Rosâ—… Amerin Hereof you may read more in Quintilians Orations Whether the fyre of hell if it be corporall can take effect vpon the incorporeall deuills CHAP. 10. BVt here now is another question whether this fire if it plague not spiritually but onely by a bodily touch can inflict any torment vpon the deuill and his Angels they are to remaine in one fire with the damned according to our Sauiours owne words Depart from mee you cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the deuill and his Angels But the deuills according as some learned men suppose haue bodies of condensate ayre such as wee feele in a winde and this ayre is passible and may suffer burning the heating of bathes prooueth where the ayre is set on fire to heate the water and doth that which first it suffereth If any will oppose and say the deuills haue no bodies at all the matter is not great nor much to be stood vpon For why may not vnbodyed spirits feele the force of bodily fire as well as mans incorporeall soule is now included in a carnall shape and shall at that day be bound into a body for euer These spirituall deuils therefore or those deuillish spirits though strangely yet shall they bee truly bound in this corporall fire which shall torment them for all that they are incorporeall Nor shall they bee so bound in it that they shall giue it a soule as it were and so become both one liuing creature but as I sayd by a wonderfull power shall they be so bound that in steed of giuing it life they shal frÌ„o it receiue intollerable torment although the coherence of spirits and bodies whereby both become one creature bee as admirable and exceede all humaine capacitie And surely I should thinke the deuills shall burne them as the riche glutton did when hee cryed saying I am tormented in this flame but that I should be answered that that fire was such as his tongue was to coole which hee seeing Lazarus a farre of intreated him to helpe him with a little water on the tippe of his finger Hee was not then in the body but in soule onely such likewise that is incorporeall was the fire hee burned in and the water hee wished for as the dreames of those that sleepe and the vision of men in extasies are which present the formes of bodies and yet are not bodies indeed And though man see these things onely in spirit yet thinketh he him-selfe so like to his body that hee cannot discerne whether hee haue it on or no. But that hell that â—…ake of fire and brimstone shall bee reall and the fire corporall burning both men and deuills the one in flesh and the other in ayre the one iâ—… the body adhaerent to the spirit and the other in spirit onely adhaerent to the fire and yet not infusing life but feeling torment for one fire shall torment both men and Deuills Christ hath spoken it Whether it bee not iustice that the time of the paines should be proportioned to the time of the sinnes and crimes CHAP. 11. BVt some of the aduersaries of Gods citty hold it iniustice for him that hath offended but temporally to be bound to suffer paine eternally this they say is â—…ly vnâ—… As though they knew any law chat adapted the time of the punishment to the time in which the crime was committed Eight kinde of punishments dâ—…th Tully affirme the lawes to inflict Damages imprisonment whipping like for like publicke
miracles that the Pagans ascribe vnto their Idolds are no way comparable to the wonders wrought by our Martyrs But as Moyses ouer-threw the enchanters of Pharao so do our martyrs ouer-throw their deuills who wrought those wonders out of their owne pride onely to gaine the reputation of Gods But our Martyrs or rather GOD him-selfe through their prayers wrought vnto another end onely to confirme that faith which excludeth multitude of Gods and beleeueth but in one The Pagans built Temples to those Deuills ordeining Priests and sacrifices for them as for Gods But we build our martyrs no temples but onely erect them monuments as in memory of men departed whose spirits are at rest in God Wee erect no altars to sacrifice to them we offer onely to him who is both their God and ours at which offring those conquerors of the world as men of God haue each one his peculiar commemoration but no inuocation at all For the sacrifice is offred vnto Cod though it be in memory of them and he that offreth it is a Priest of the Lord and not of theirs and the offring is the body of the Lord which is not offred vnto them because they are that body them-selues Whose miracles shall wee then beleeue Theirs that would be accompted for Gods by those to whom they shew them or theirs which tend all to confirme our beleefe in one GOD which is CHRIST Those that would haue their filthiest acts held sacred or those that will not haue their very vertues held sacred in respect of their owne glories but referred vnto his glory who hath imparted such goodnesse vnto them Let vs beleeue them that doe both worke miracles and teach the truth for this latter gaue them power to performe the former A chiefe point of which truth is this CHRIST rose againe in the flesh and shewed the immortality of the resurrection in his owne body which hee promised vnto vs in the end of this world or in the beginning of the next Against the Platonists that oppose the eleuation of the body vp to heauen by arguments of elementary ponderosity CHAP. 11. AGainst this promise do many whose thoughts God knoweth to be vaine make oppositiō out of the nature of elements Plato their Mr. teaching them that the two most contrary bodies of the world are combined by other two meanes that is by ayre and water Therefore say they earth being lowest water next then ayre and then the heauen earth cannot possibly bee contained in heauen euery element hauing his peculiar poise and tending naturally to his proper place See with what vaine weake and weightlesse arguments mans infirmity opposeth Gods omnipotency Why then are there so many earthly bodies in the ayre ayre being the third element from earth Cannot he that gaue birds that are earthly bodyes fethers of power to sustaine them in the ayre giue the like power to glorified and immortall bodies to possesse the heauen Againe if this reason of theirs were true all that cannot flie should liue vnder the earth as fishes doe in the water Why then doe not the earthly creatures liue in the water which is the next element vnto earth but in the ayre which is the third And seeing they belong to the earth why doth the next element aboue the earth presently choake them and drowne them and the third feed and nourish them Are the elements out of order here now or are their arguments out of reason I will not stand heere to make a rehearsall of what I spake in the thirteene booke of many terrene substances of great weight as Lead Iron c. which not-with-standing may haue such a forme giuen it that it will swimme and support it selfe vpon the water And cannot God almighty giue the body of man such a forme like-wise that it may ascend and support it selfe in heauen Let them stick to their method of elements which is all their trust yet can they not tell what to say to my former assertion For earth is the lowest element and then water and ayre successiuely and heauen the fourth and highest but the soule is a fifth essence aboue them all Aristotle calleth it a fifth a body and Plato saith it is vtterly incorporeall If it were the fift in order then were it aboue the rest but being incorporeall it is much more aboue all substances corporeall What doth it then in a lumpe of earth it being the most subtile and this the most grosse essence It being the most actiue and this the most vnweeldy Cannot the excellencie of it haue power to lift vp this Hath the nature of the body power to draw downe a soule from heauen and shall not the soule haue power to carry the body thether whence it came it selfe And now if we should examine the miracles which they parallell with those of our martyrs wee should finde proofes against themselues out of their owne relations One of their greatest ones is that which Varro reports of a vestall votaresse who being suspected of whoredome filled a Siue with the water of Tiber and carried it vnto her Iudges with-out spilling a drop Who was it that kept the water in the siue so that not one droppe passed through those thousand holes Some God or some Diuell they must needs say Well if hee were a God is hee greater then hee that made the world if then an inferiour God Angell or Deuill had this power to dispose thus of an heauie element that the very nature of it seemed altered cannot then the Almighty maker of the whole world take away the ponderosity of earth and giue the quickned body an hability to dwell in the same place that the quickning spirit shall elect And where-as they place the ayre betweene the fire aboue and the water beneath how commeth it that wee often-times finde it betweene water and water or betweene water and earth for what will they make of those watry clowds betweene which and the sea the ayre hath an ordinary passage What order of the elements doth appoint that those flouds of raine that fall vpon the earth below the ayre should first hang in the clowds aboue the ayre And why is ayre in the midst betweene the heauen and the earth if it were as they say to haue the place betweene the heauens and the waters as water is betweene it and the earth And lastly if the elements bee so disposed as that the two meanes ayre and water doe combine the two extreames fire and earth heauen being in the highest place and earth in the lowest as the worlds foundation and therefore say they impossible to bee in heauen what doe wee then with fire here vpon earth for if this order of theirs bee kept inuiolate then as earth cannot haue any place in fire no more should fire haue any in earth as that which is lowest cannot haue residence aloft no more should that which is aloft haue residence below But we see this order renuersed We haue fire
needie Such may haue store of money but there in they shall neuer lack store of wante And God we say well is ritch not in money but in omnipotencie So likewise monied men are called ritch but be they greedy they are euer needy and monylesse men are called poore but be they contented they are euer wealthy What stuffe then shall a man haue of that diuinity whose scope and chiefe God c no wise man in the world would make choice of How much likelier were it if their religion in any point concerned eternall life to call their chiefe vniuersall God d Wisdome the loue of which cleanseth one from the staines of auarice that is the loue of money L. VIVES ALL a mortall All mens possessions haue reference to money so that it is said that Peculium gaine commeth of Pecudes sheepe Columell Seru. Festus because these were all the wealth of antiquitie for they were almost all sheepheards and from them this word came first and afterward signified cittie-wealth also Uar de ling. lat lib. 4. b Wise iust a Stoicall Paradoxe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely the wise are ritche Tully prooues it strongly and many Philosophers haue confirmed it all whose mindes were against money c No wise man Auarice saith Salust is the loue of Money which no wise man euer affected it is a poyson that infecteth all the manlinesse of the minde and maketh it effeminate being euer infinite and insatiable neither contented with want meane nor excesse d Wisdome as well call our God That the interpretations of Saturne and Genius prooue them both to bee Iupiter CHAP. 13. BVt what should we do saying more of Iupiter to whom al the other gods haue such relation that the opinion of many gods will by and by prooue a bable and Ioue stand for them all whether they bee taken as his parts and powers or that the soule that they hold is diffused through all the world gotte it selfe so many diuerse names by the manifold operations which it effected in the parts of this huge masse whereof the visible vniuerse hath the fabrike and composition for what is this same Saturne A chiefe God saith he and one that is Lord of all seedes and sowing What but doth not the exposition of Soranus his verses say that Ioue is the world and both creator and conceiuer of all seedes He therefore must needs rule the sowing of them And what is a Genius God of generation saith he Why tell me hath any one that power but the world to whom it was said High Ioue full parent generall of all Besides hee saith in another place that the Genius b is the reasonable soule peculiar in each peculiar man And that the soule of the world is a God of the same nature drawing it to this that that soule is the vniuersall Genius to all those particulars Why then it is the same that they call Ioue c For if each Genius bee a god and each soule reasonable a Genius then is each soule reasonable a god by all consequence which such absurdity vrgeth them to deny it resteth that they make the worlds singular soule their selected Genius and consequently make their Genius directly Ioue L. VIVES WHAT a is Genius The Lord of all generation Fest. Pompey The sonne of the gods and the father of men begetting them and so it is called my genius For it begot me Aufustius The learned haue had much a doe about this Genius and finde it manifoldly vsed Natures Genius is the god that produced her the Heauens haue many Genii read them in Capella his Nuptiae Melicerta is the seas Genius Parthen the foure elements fire ayre water and earth are the genii of all things corporall The Greekes call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 geniall gods Such like hath Macrobius of natures Penates Iupiter and Iuno are the ayre lowest and meane Minerua the highest or the aethereall sky to which three Tarquinius Priscus erected one Temple vnder one roofe Some call the moone and the 12. signes Genii and chiefe Genii too for they wil haue no place without a predominant Genius Euery man also hath his Genius either that guardeth him in his life or that lookes to his generation or that hath originall with him both at one time Censorin Genius and Lar some say are all one C. Flaccus de Indigitaments The Lars saith Ouid were twinnes to Mercury and Nymph Lara or Larunda Wherefore many Philosophers and Euclide for one giues each man two Lars a good and a bad such was that which came to Brutus in the night as he was thinking of his warres hee had in hand Plutarch Flor. Appian b Genius is Of this more at large in the booke following c For if each A true Syllogisme in the first forme of the first moode vsually called Barbara Of the functions of Mars and Mercury CHAP. 14. BVt in all the worlds parts they could finde neuer a corner for Mars and Mercury to practise in the elements and therefore they gaue them power in mens actions this of eloquence the other of warre Now for Mercury a if he haue power of the gods language also then is he their King if Iupiter borrow all his phrase from him but this were absurd But his power stretcheth but vnto mans onely it is vnlikely that Ioue would take such a base charge in hand as suckling of not onely children but cattell also calues or foales as thence he hath his name Romulus and leaue the rule of our speech so glorious a thing and that wherein we excell the beasts vnto the sway of another his inferiour I but how if Mercury be b the speech onely it selfe for so they interprete him and therefore he is called Mercurius c quasi Medius currens the meane currant because to speak is the only currant meane for one man to expresse his minde to another by and his greeke name d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but interpreter speech or interpretation which is called in greeke also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence is hee e Lord of merchants because buying and selling is all by wordes and discourses Herevpon they f wing his head and his feete to signifie the swift passage of speech and call him g the messenger because all messages and thoughts whatsoeuer are transported from man to man by the speech Why very well If Mercury then be but the speech I hope hee is no god then by their owne confessions But they make gods of no gods and offring to vncleane spirits in stead of beeing inspired with gods are possessed with deuills And because the world and elements had no roome for Mars to worke in nature they made him god of war which is a worke of man not to be desired after But if Mars be warre as Mercury is speech I would it were as sure that there were no warre to bee falsly called god as it is plaine that Mars is no god L.
likewise in artificiall things as a table a booke or so euery leafe is not a booke nor euery part of the table a table These parts are called Heterogenea or Of diuers kindes multigenae Agricola calles them The Symilar partes Anaxagoras held to bee in all things infinite either different as of wood bloud ayre fire bone and such or congruent as of water infinite parcells all of one nature and so of fire c for though bodies bee generate by this separation yet cannot these parts bee so distinguished but infinite will still remaine that euermore is best meanes for one thing to bee progenerate of another and nourished so that this communication continueth euerlastingly of nature place and nutriment But of the Heterogeneall parts hee did not put infinite in nature for hee did not hold that there were infinite men in the fire nor infinite bones in a man t Diogenes There were many of this name one of Synope called the Cynike one of Sicyon an Historiographer one a stoike fellow Embassador to Rome which Carneades borne at Seleucia but called the Babilonian or Tharsian one that writ of poeticall questions and Diogenes Laertius from whom wee haue this our Philosophy elder then them all one also called Apolloniata mentioned here by Augustine Our commentator like a good plaisterer daubed the Cynike and this into one as hee made one Thomas of Thomas Valois and Thomas Aquinas in his Commentaries vpon Boethius u Ayre Cic. de nat de What is that ayre that Diogenes Apolloniata calles God He affirmed also inumerable worlds in infinite spaces and that the ayre thickning it selfe into a globous body produceth a world x Archelaus Some say of Myletus some of Athens He first brought Physiologie from Ionia to Athens and therefore was called Physicus also because his scholler Socrates brought in the Morality y He also Plutarch saith he put the infinite ayre for the worlds generall principle and that the r◅ity and density thereof made fire and water z Consonance Eternity say the manuscripts a Socrates This is hee that none can sufficiently commend the wisest Pagan that euer was An Athenian begot by Sophroniscus a stone-cutter and Phanareta a mid-wife A man temperare chaste iust modest pacient scorning wealth pleasure and glory for he neuer wrote any thing he was the first that when others said he knew all affirmed himselfe hee knew nothing Of the Socratical◅ discipline CHAP. 3. SOcrates therefore was a the first that reduced Philosophy to the refor◅tion of manres for al before him aymed at naturall speculation rather then practise morality I cannot surely tel whether the tediousnesse b of these obscurities moued Socrates to apply his minde vnto some more set and certaine inuention for an assistance vnto beatitude which was the scope of all the other Phylosophers intents and labours or as some doe fauorably surmise hee c was vnwilling that mens mindes being suppressed with corrupt and earthly affects should ofter to crowd vnto the height of these Physicall causes whose totall and whose originall relyed soly as he held vpon the will of God omnipotent only and true wherefore he held that d no mind but a purified one could comprehend them and therfore first vrged a reformed course of life which effected the mind vnladen of terrestriall distractions might towre vp to eternity with the owne intelectuall purity sticke firme in contemplation of the nature of that incorporeal vnchanged and incomprehensible light which e conteyneth the causes of all creation Yet sure it is that in his morall disputations f he did with most elegant and acute vrbanity taxe and detect the ignorance of these ouer-weening fellowes that build Castles on their owne knowledge eyther in this confessing his owne ignorance or dissembling his vnderstanding g wher-vpon enuy taking hold he was wrackt by a h callumnious accusation and so put to death i Yet did Athens that condemned him afterward publikely lament for him and the wrath of the commonty fell so sore vpō his two accusers that one of them was troden to death by the multitude and another forced to auoid the like by a voluntary banishment This Socrates so famous in his life and death left many of his schollers behind him whose l study and emulation was about moralyty euer and that summum bonum that greatest good which no man wanting can attain beatitude m VVhich being not euident in Socrates his controuersiall questions each man followed his own opiniō and made that the finall good n The finall good is that which attained maketh man happy But Socrates his schollers were so diuided strange hauing all onemaister that some o Aristippus made pleasure this finall good others p Antisthenes vertue So q each of the rest had his choice too long to particularize L. VIVES WAs the a first Cicero Acad. Quest. I thinke and so do all that Socrates first called Phylosophy out of the mists of naturall speculations wherein all the Phylosophers before had beene busied and apllyed it to the institution of life and manners making it y◠meane to inquire out vertue and vice good and euill holding things celestiall too abstruse for natural powers to investigate far seperate from things natural which if they could be known were not vsefull in the reformation of life b Tediousnesse Xenophon Comment rer Socratic 1. writeth that Socrates was wont to wonder that these dayly and nightly inuestigators could neuer finde that their labour was stil rewarded with vncertainties and this he explaneth at large c Was vnwilling Lactantius his wordes in his first booke are these I deny not but that Socrates hath more witte then the rest that thought they could comprehend all natures courses wherein I thinke them not onely vnwise but impious also to dare to aduance their curious eyes to view the altitude of the diuine prouidence And after Much guiltter are they that lay their impious disputation vpon quest of the worlds secrets prophaning the celestial temple therby then either they that enter the Temples of Ceres Bona Dea Vesta d No minde Socrates disputeth this at large in Plato's P◅adon at his death Shewing that none can bee a true Phylosopher that is not abstracted in spirit from all the affects of the body which then is affected when in this life the soule is looseed from all perturbations and so truly contemplated the true good that is the true God And therefore Phylosophy is defined a meditation of death that is there is a seperation or diuorce betweene soule and body the soule auoyding the bodies impurities and so becomming pure of it selfe For it is sin for any impure thought to be present at the speculation of that most pure essence and therefore hee thought men attoned unto God haue far more knowledge then the impure that know him not In Plato's Cratylus hee saith good men are onely wise and that none can be skilfull in matters celestiall without Gods assistance In Epinomede There may
the reasonable soules which are parts in that order of nature are not to bee held for goddes Nor ought it to be subiect to those things ouer which God hath giuen it superiority Away with those thinges also which Numa buryed beeing pertinent to these religious ordinances and beeing afterwards turned vp by a plough were by the Senate buryed And those also to fauor our suspition of Numa Which Alexander the great wrote b to his Mother that hee hadde learned of Leon an Aegiptian Priest Where not onely Picus Faunus Aeneas Romulus Hercules A◅sculapius Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other mortal men whome they hadde for their goddes but euen the c gods of the greater families whom Tully not naming them though seemes to touch at in his Tusculane Questions Iupiter Iuno Saturne Vulcan Vesta and many other which Varro would make nothing but Elements and parts of the world there are they all shewne to haue beene but men For the Priest fearing the reuealing of these misteries warned Alexander that as soone as his Mother hadde read them hee should burne them So not all this fabulous and ciuill Theology shall giue place to the Platonists who held a true God the author of all thinges the clearer of all doubtes and the giuer of all goodnes but euen the other Phylosophers also whose grosse bodily inuentions held the worlds beginning to be bodily let al these giue place to those good god-conceiuing men let Thales depart with his water Anaximenes with the ayre the Stoikes with their d fire Epicurus with his Atomes his indiuisible and in sensible bodies and all other that now are not for vs to recount who placed natures originall in bodies eyther simple compound quicke or dead for there were e some and the Epicureans were they that held a possibility of producing the quicke out of the dead f others would produce out of the quick some things quick and some dead yet all bodily as of a body produced But the Stoikes held g the fire one of this visible worldes foure elements to bee wise liuing the Creator of the world whole and part yea euen God him-selfe Now these their fellowes followed euen the bare surmises of their owne fleshly opinions in these assertions For h they hadde that in them which they saw not and thought that to bee in them which they saw externally nay which they saw not but imagined onely now this in the sight of such a thought is no body but a bodies likenesse But that where-with our minde seeth seeth this bodyes likenesse is neither body nor likenesse and that which discerneth the other iudging of the deformity or beauty of it is more beautious then that which it iudgeth of This is the nature of mans minde and reasonable soule which is no body nor is the bodies likenesse revolued in the minde a body either So then it is neyther fire ayre water nor earth of which foure bodies which wee call Elements this visible World is composed Now if our soule bee no body how can God that made it bee a body So then let these giue place to the Platonists and i those also that shamed to say God was a body and yet would make him of the same essence that our s◅es ar being not moued by the soules mutability which it were vile to ascribe vnto God I but say they k the body it is that alters the soule of it self it is immutable So might they say that it is a body that woundeth the body for of it selfe it is invulnerable That which is immutable nothing externall can change But that that any body alters is not vnchangeable because it is externally alterable L. VIVES THey a make A difference of reading but not worthy the noting b Wrote this Cyprian affirming al y◠Pagan gods were men saith that this is so Alexander writeth in a famous volume to hi◅ mother that the feare of his power made such secrets of the gods to bee reuealed vnto him by that Pries◅ that they were he saw now nothing else but ancient kinges whose memories vsed to be kept at first and afterwards grew to sacrifices De Idoll Vanitate c Gods of the Tarquinius Pris◅s fist King of Rome added 100. Senators to the ancient Senate and these were called the fathers of the lesser families the former of the greater which phraze Tully vseth metaphorically for the ancient confirmed gods If we should seeke the truth of Greeke authors saith Tully euen these goddes of the greater families would be found to haue gone from vs here ◅n earth vp into heauen Thus farre he Tusc. Quaest. 1. Teaching the soules immortallity which beeing loosed from the body shall be such as they who are adored for gods Such were Romulus Hercules Bacchus c. And thus is heauen filled almost ful with men Tully also elsewhere calleth such gods of the greater families as haue alwaies bene held celestiall In Legib. Those that merit heauen he calleth Gods ascript d Fire Cic. de nat deor The Stoikes hold al actiue power fire following it seemes Heraclitus And Zeno their chiefe defineth the nature that he held for god to be a fire artificiall generatiue and moouing e Some The Epicureans held all men and each thing else to come out of Atomes flying about at randome and knitting together by chance f Others So the old Manuscripts do read it g Held the fire Cic. de ◅t de◅ h They had that They could not conceiue the soule to be incorporeall but corporall onely nor vniuersally that but sensible onely And it is triuiall in the Shooles Nothing is in the ◅derstanding that was not first in the sence That is our minde conceiueth but what is circumscribed with a body sensible or an obiect of our sence So we conceit incorporeall things corporally and corporall things neuer seene by imagination and cogitation of such or such formes as we haue seene As one that neuer saw Rome but thinkes of it he imagineth it hath walls churches buildings or such-like as he hath seene at Paris Louvaine Valencia or elsewhere Further Augustine teacheth that the thoughts are incorporeall and that the mindes internall sences which produce thoughts are both before thoughts and thinges them-selues which sences internal God being the Creator of must needs be no body but a power more excellent then al other bodies or soules i Those also Cic. de nat deor l. 1. for Pythagoras that held God to be a soule continuate diffused through al nature neuer marked the perturbations our soules are subiect to by which were God such he should be distracted and disturbed when the soules were wretched as many are so should god be also which is impossible but Plato deriued our soules frō the substance of the stars if they died yong he affirmed their returne theth◅ again each to the star whence it came and that as the stars were composed of the 4. Ele◅ so we◅e the soules but in a
before the other the other spent their wittes in seeking out of the causes of things the meanes of learning and order of life these knowing GOD found thâ—… their was both the cause of the whole creation the light of all true learning and the fount of all felicity So that what Platonists or others soeuer held thâ—…s of GOD they held as we doe But wee choose rather to deale with the a Plâ—…tonists then others because their workes are most famous for both the Greekes whose language is very greatly ' esteemed of the nations doâ—… preserue and extoll them and the Latines mooued by their excelleâ—… and glory learning them more willingly themselues and by recordiâ—… them in their tongues also left them the more illustrious and plaine to vs and to all posterity L. VIVES VVIth the a Platonists From Plato and Aristotles time vnto Aphrodiseus that liued vnder Seuerus and his sonne Aristotle was rather named amongst the learned then either read or vnderstood Aprodiseus first aduentured to explaine him and did set many on to search farther into the author by that light hee gaue yet did Plato keepe aboue him still vntill the erection of publike schooles in France and Italy that is as long as the Greeke and Latine tongues were in account but when learning grew Mercenary and Mimicall all their aime was gaine and contention and verbosity and sond subtility with vile fained wordes of arte and friuolous quillets then was Aristotles logike and physikes held fit for their purpose and many better bookes of his throwne aside But as for Plato because they vnderstood him not nay and Aristotle much lesse yet because hee teacheth no trickes oh neuer name him I speake not this to imply Aristotles learning more insufficient then Plato's but it is a shame that Plato a holy Philosopher should bee thrust by and Aristotles best part also and the rest so read that he must speake their pleasures beeing such fooleries as not Aristotle no not any mad man of his time would haue held or divulged Whence Plato might haue that knowledge that brought him so neare the Christian doctrine CHAP. 11. NOw some of our Christians admire at these assertions of Plato comming soneere to our beleefe of God So that some thinke that at his going to Egipt hâ—…e heard the Prophet a Hieremye or got to read some of the prophets bookes in his trauell these opinions I haue b else-where related But by all true chronicles supputation Plato was borne an 100. yeares after Ieremy prophecied Plato liued 81. yeares and from his death to the time that Ptolomy King of Egipt demanded the Hebrew prophecies and had them translated by the 70. Iewes that vnderstood the greeke also is reckned almost 60. yeares So that Plato in his trauell could neither see Hieremy beeing dead nor read the scriptures beeing not as yet translated into the greeke which he vnderstood c vnlesse as he was of an infatigable studie he had had them read by an interpretor yet so as hee might not translate them or coppy them which Ptolomy as a friend might intreate or as a King command but onely carry away what he could in his memory Some reason there is for this because Genesis beginneth thus In the beginning GOD treated heauen and earth and the earth was without forme and voide and darkenesse â—…as vpon the deepe the Spirit of GOD mooued vpon the wateâ—…s And Plato in his d Tiâ—…s saith that GOD first e ioyned the earth and the fire Now it is certaine that f hee meaneth heauen by fire so that here is a correspondence with the other In the beginning GOD created heauen and earth Againe hee saith that the two g meanes conioyning these extremities are water and ayre this some may thinke he had from the other The spirit of GOD mooued vpon the waters not minding in what sence the scripture vseth the word Spirit and because h ayre is a spirit therefore it may bee hee gathered that hee collected 4. elements from this place And whereas hee saith a Philosopher is a louer of God thâ—…re is nothing better squareth with the holy scriptures but that especially which maketh mee almost confesse that Plato wanted not these bookes that whereas the Angel that brought Gods word to Moyses being asked what his name was that bad him goe free the Israelites out of Egipt answered his name was i I am that I am And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israell I am hath sent me to you as if that in comparison of that which truely is being immutable the things that are immutable are not Plato stuck hard vpon this and commended it highly And I maâ—…e a doubt whether the like be to be found in any one that euer wrote before Plate except in that booke when it was first written so I am that I am and thou shalt tell them that I am sent me to you But wheresoeuer he had it out of others bookes before him or as the Apostle saith Because that which is knowne of God is manifest vnto them for God hath shewed it them For the inuisible things of him that iâ—… his eternall power and god-head are seene by the creation of the world being considered in his workes This maketh mee chose to deale with the Platonists in our intended question of naturall Theology namely whether the seruice of one GOD or many suffice for the felicity of the life to come For as touching the seruice of one or many for the helpes of this temporall life I thinke I haue said already sufficient L. VIVES PRophet a Hieremy Hee went with the two Tribes Beniamin and Iuda into Egipt and was there stoned at Tanis there the inhabitants honour him for the present helpe his tombe giues theÌ„ against the stinging of serpents b Else-where De Doctr. xpian 2. Eusebâ—… saith Hieremy began to prophecy the 36. Olympiade and Plato was borne the 88. of the Septuagines hereafter c Unlesse as he was Iustin Martyr in Paracl ad gent Euseb. de prâ—…p Theodor. de Graec. affect all affiâ—…me that Plato had much doctrine from the Hebrew bookes Herevpon Numenius the Philosopher said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is Plato but Moyfes made Athenian And Aristobulus the Iewe writting to Philometoâ—… saith as Eusebius citeth it Plato did follow our law in many things for his diuers allegations haue prooued him an obseruer of it in particular things and that in many For the Pentateâ—…ch was translated before Alexanders time yea before the Persian Monarchy whence hee and Pythagoras had both very much d Timaeus So because Timaeus the Locrian is induced as disputing of the worâ—…d hâ—… had Plato heard in Italy and he wrote of the world in the dorike tongue out of which booke Plato hath much of his doctrine e Ioyned the earth The words are traâ—…slated by Tully thus Corporeum aspectabilem itemque tractabilem esse necessarium est nihil porrò igni vacuum
by temptations the other enuying this the recollection of the faithfull pilgrims the obscurity I say of the opinion of these two so contrary societies the one good in nature and wil the other good in nature also but bad by wil since it is not explaned by other places of scripture that this place in Genesiis of the light and darknes may bee applyed as Denominatiue vnto them both though the author hadde no such intent yet hath not beene vnprofitably handled because though wee could not knowe the authors will yet wee kept the rule of faith which many other places make manifest For though Gods corporall workes bee heere recited yet haue some similitude with the spiritual as the Apostle sayth you are all the children of the light and the children of the day wee are no sonnes of the night nor darknes But if this were the authors mind the other disputation hath attained perfection that so wise a man of God nay the spirit in him in reciting the workes of God all perfected in sixe dayes might by no meanes bee held to leaue out the Angels eyther in the beginning that is because hee had made them first or as wee may better vnderstand In the beginning because hee made them in his onely begotten Word in which beginning God made heauen and earth Which two names eyther include all the creation spirituall and temporall which is more credible Or the two great partes onely as continents of the lesser beeing first proposed in whole and then the parts performed orderly according to the mistery of the sixe dayes L. VIVES INto a cheynes This is playne in Saint Peters second Epistle and Saint Iudes also The Angels sayth the later which kept not their first estate but left their owne habitation hath hee reserued in euerlasting cheynes vnder Darkenesse vnto the iudgement of the great day Augustine vseth prisons for places whence they cannot passe as the horses were inclosed and could not passe out of the circuit vntill they had run b Pride Typhus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Pride and the Greeks vse Typhon of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee proud and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burne for the fiery diuell So sayth Plutarch of Typhon Osyris his brother that he was a diuell that troubled all the world with acts of malice and torment Augustine rather vseth it then the Latine for it is of more force and was of much vse in those dayes Philip the Priest vseth it in his Commentaries vppon Iob. c Iustice For God doth iustly reuenge by his good Ministers He maketh the spirits his messengers flaming fire his Ministers Ps. 103. d The desired There is no power on the earth like the diuels Iob. 40. Which might they practise as they desire they would burne drowne waste poyson torture and vtterly destroy man and beast And though we know not the diuells power directly where it is limited and how farr extended yet are wee sure they can do vs more hurt then we can euer repaire Of the power of Angels read Augustâ—… de Trinit lib. 3. Of the opinion that some held that the Angels weee meant by the seueral waters and of others that held the waters vncreated CHAP. 34. YEt some there a were that thought that the b company of Angels were meant by the waters and that these wordes Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it seperate the waters from the waters meant by the vpperwaters the Angels and by the lower eyther the nations or the diuels But if this bee so there is no mention of the Angels creation but onely of their seperation c Though some most vainely and impiously deny that God made the waters because hee neuer said Let there be waters So they may say of earth for he neuer said Let there be earth I but say they it is written God created both heauen and earth Did he so Then is water included therein also for one name serues both for the Psalm sayth The sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land but the d elementary weights do moue these men to take the waters aboue for the Angels because so an element cannot remayne aboue the heauens No more would these men if they could make a man after their principles put fleame being e in stead of water in mans body in the head f but there is the seate of fleame most fitly appointed by God but so absurdly in these mens conceits that if wee know not though this booke told vs playne that God had placed this fluid cold and consequently heauy humor in the vppermost part of mans body these world-weighers would neuer beleeue it And if they were subiect to the scriptures authority they would yet haue some meaning to shift by But seeing that the consideration of all thinges that the Booke of God conteineth concerning the creation would draw vs farre from our resolued purpose lette vs now together with the conclusion of this booke giue end to this disputation of the two contrary societyes of Angells wherein are also some groundes of the two societies of mankinde vnto whome we intend now to proceed in a fitting discourse L. VIVES SOme a there were as Origen for one who held that the waters aboue the heauens were no waters but Angelicall powers and the waters vnder the heauens their contraries diuels Epiph. ad Ioan. Hierosol Episc. b Companies Apocal. The peaple are like many waters and here-vpon some thought the Psalme meant saying You waters that bee aboue the heauens praise the name of the Lord for that belongs only to reasonable creatures to do c Though some Augustine reckoneth this for an heresie to hold the waters coeternall with God but names no author I beleeue Hesiods Chaos and Homers all producing waters were his originals d Elementary I see all this growes into question whether there be waters aboue the heauens and whether they be elementary as ours are Of the first there is lesse doubt For if as some hold the firmament be the ayre then the seperation of waters from waters was but the parting of the cloudes from the sea But the holy men that affirme the waters of Genesis to be aboue the starry firmament preuaile I gesse now in this great question that a thicke clowd commixt with ayre was placed betwixt heauen and earth to darken the space betweene heauen and vs And that part of it beeing thickned into that sea we see was drawne by the Creator from the face of the earth to the place where it is that other part was borne vp by an vnknowne power to the vttermost parts of the world And hence it came that the vpper still including the lower heauen the fire fire the ayre ayre the water this water includeth not the earth because the whole element thereof is not vnder the Moone as fire and ayre is Now for the nature of those waters Origen to begin with the
away and therefore hurteth not for it cannot be both a vice and hurtlesse whence wee gather that though vice cannot hurt that vnchangeable good yet it can hurt nothing but good because it is not but where it hurteth And so we may say that vice cannot bee in the highest good nor cannot bee but in some good Good therefore may be alone but so cannot euill because the natures that an euill will hath corrupted though as they be polluted they are euill yet as they are natures they are good And when this vicious nature is punished there is this good besides the nature that it is not vnpunished for this is iust and what is iust is questionlesse good and no a man is punished for the falts of his nature but of his will for that vice that hath gotten from a custome into an habit and seemeth naturall had the originall from corruption of will for now wee speake of the vices of that nature wherein is a foule capable of the intellectuall light whereby wee discerne betweene iust and vniust L. VIVES NO a man Vice or a falt generally is a declining from the right So that there are of them naturall as if wee haue gotten any custome of any act against the Decorum of that kinde or haue it by nature as to haue more or fewer members then we should stammering of speach blindnesse deafnesse or any thing against perfection bee it in men beasts trees 〈◊〉 or whatsoeuer Then there is falte of manners and fault of art when the worke-man 〈◊〉 erred from his science b Naturall So that is dominereth and playeth the tyrant in a 〈◊〉 seeking to compell him to do thus wherevpon many say in excuse of sinnes that they cannot do withall whereas their owne will nousles it vp in them and they may oppose it if they 〈◊〉 Though it be not so easily expelled as admitted yet the expulsion is not impossible and vnlesse you expell it you shall not be acquit of the guilt Of liuelesse and reasonlesse natures whose order differeth not from the decorum held in the whole Vniuerse CHAP. 4. BVt it were a sottishnesse to thinke that the falts of beasts trees and other vnreasonable sencelesse or liuelesse creatures whereby their corruptible nature is damnified are damnable for the creators will hath disposed of those thus to perfect the inferior beauty of this vniuerse by this a successiue alteration of them For earthly things are not comparable to heauenly yet might not the world want those because the other are more glorious Wherefore in the succession of those things one to another in their due places and in the b change of the meaner into qualities of the better the order of things transitory consisteth Which orders glorie wee delight not in because wee are annexed to it as partes of mortality wee cannot discerne the whole Vniuerse though wee obserue how conueniently those parcells wee see are combined wherevpon in things out of our contemplations reach we must beleeue the prouidence of the Creator rather then be so rash as to condemne any part of the worlds Fâ—…brique of any imperfection Though if wee marke well by the same reason those vnvoluntary and vnpunishable falts to those creatures commend their natures vnto vs none of whome nath any other maker but GOD because wee our selues dislike that that nature of theirs which wee like should bee defaced by that falt vnlesse men will dislike the natures of things that hurt them not consider their natures but their oâ—…ne profit as c of those creatures that plagued the pride of Egipt But so they might dispraise the Sunne for some offenders or vniust deteiners of others right are by the Iudges condemned d to bee set in the hot Sunne Wherefore it is not the consideration of nature in respect of our profit but in it selfe that glorifieth the Creator The nature of the eternall fire is assuredly laudable though the wicked shal be therein euerlastingly tormented For what is more faire then the bright pure and flaming fire what more vsefull to heate cure or boile withall though not so hurtfull in burning Thus that e being penally applied is pernicious which being orderly vsed is conuenient f for who can explane the thousand vses of it in the world Heare them not g that praise the fires light and dispraise the heate respecting not the nature of it but their own profite and disprofite they would see but they would not burne But they consider not that this light they like so beeing immoderately vsed hurteth a tender eye and that in this heate which they dislike so many h creatures do very conueniently keepe and liue L. VIVES THe a successiue One decaying and another succeeding b Change of the He toucheth the perpetual alteration of elements and elementary bodies where some are transmuted into the more powerfull agent and sometimes the agent puts on the nature of the passiue Ayre continually taketh from water and water from ayre So doth fire from ayre and ayre from fire but in diuerâ—… places c Of those The frogs and â—…nats d To bee set A â—…inde of punishment especially infamous yet not without paine The bawdes in Spaine are thus punished set in the stockes and anointed al with hony which drawes all the Bees Fâ—…es and Waspes in a Country vnto them e Beeing penally So wee reade it for the best f â—…or who Thence is the common prouerbe of a thing of common vse Wee haue as much vse of it as of fire or water as Tâ—…lly saith of friendship Lael And to forbid one fire and water mans two chiefe necessaries is as it were to expell him of all humaine societie Uitruuius saith that the comming tâ—…her vnto the fire brought men first to talke together and so produced commerce societies and cities lib. 2. Lactantius prooueth man a diuine creature because hee onely of all creatures vseth the fire g That praise Taught by Plutarchs Satyre that loued Prometheus his new found fire so that hee fell a kissing of it and burning his lippes threw it downe and ran â—…way Such a tale tells Mela of the sea-bordering Affricans to whome Eudoxus caried fire h Câ—…res In Cyprus in the brasse furnaces where they burne redd Virrioll many dayeâ—… together are produced winged creatures a little bigger then the greatest flyes and those liue iâ—… the fire Arist. Hist. animal lib. 5. The Salamander they say not onely liues in thâ—… fire vnburned but also putteth it out with his very touch That the Creator hath deserued praise in euery forme and kinde of nature CHAP. 5. WHerefore all natures are good because they haue their forme kinde and a certaine rest withall in them-selues And when they are in their true posture of nature they preserue the essence in the full manner as they receiued it and that whose essence is not eternall followeth the lawes of the creator that swayeth it and changeth into better or worse tending by Gods disposition still to
ment hereby S. Augustine confesseth that he cannot define Sup. Genes lib. 8. These are secrets all vnneedfull to be knowne and all wee vnworthy to know them Of the new Heauen and the new Earth CHAP. 16. THe iudgement of the wicked being past as he fore-told the iudgement of the goodâ—…ust follow for hee hath already explained what Christ said in briefe They shall go into euerlasting paine now he must expresse the sequell And the righteous into life eternall And I saw saith he a new heauen and a new earth The first heauen and earth were gone and so was thesea for such was the order described before by him when he saw the great white throne one sitting vpon it froÌ„ whose face they fled So then they that were not in the booke of life being iudged and cast into eternall fire what or where it is I hold is vnknowne to a all but those vnto whome it please the spirit to reueale it then shall this world loose the figure by worldly fire as it was erst destroyed by earthly water Then as I said shall all the worlds corruptible qualities be burnt away all those that held correspondence with our corruption shall be agreeable with immortality that the world being so substantially renewed may bee fittly adapted vnto the men whose substances are renewed also But for that which followeth There 〈◊〉 no more sea whether it imply that the sea should bee dried vp by that vniuersall conflagration or bee transformed into a better essence I cannot easily determyne Heauen and Earth were read shal be renewed but as concerning the sea I haue not read any such matter that I can remember vnlesse that other place in this booke of that which hee calleth as it were a sea of glasse like vnto christall import any such alteration But in that place hee speaketh not of the worlds end neither doth hee say directly a sea but as a sea Notwithstanding it is the Prophets guise to speake of truths in misticall manner and to mixe truths and types together and so he might say there was no more sea in the same sence that hee sayd the sea shall giue vp hir dead intending that there should be no more turbulent times in the world which he insinuateth vnder the word Sea L. VIVES VNknowne a to all To all nay Saint Augustine it seemes you were neuer at the schoole-mens lectures There is no freshman there at least no graduate but can tell that it is the elementany fire which is betweene the sphere of the moone and the ayre that shall come downe and purge the earth of drosse together with the ayre and water If you like not this another will tell you that the beames of the Sonne kindle a fire in the midst of the ayre as in a burning glasse and so worke wonders But I doe not blame you fire was not of that vse in your time that it is now of when eâ—…y Philosopher to omit the diuines can carry his mouth his hands and his feete full of fire 〈◊〉 in the midst of Decembers cold and Iulies heate Of Philosophers they become diuines and yet keepe their old fiery formes of doctrine still so that they haue farre better iudgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hot case then you or your predecessors euer had Of the glorification of the Church after death for euer CHAP. 17. AND I Iohn saith hee sawe that Holie Cittie new Ierusalem come downe from GOD out of Heauen prepared as a bride trimmed for her husband And I heard a great voice out of Heauen saying behold the Tabernacle of GOD is with men and hee will dwell with them and they shal be his people and hee himselfe shal be their GOD with them And GOD shall wipeawaie all teares from their eyes and there shal be no more death neither teares neither crying neither shall there bee any more paine for the first things are passed And hee that sate vpon the Throne sayd behold I make althings new c. This cittie is sayd to come from Heauen because the grace of GOD that founded it is heauenly as GOD saith in Esay I am the LORD that made thee This grace of his came downe from heauen euen from the beginning and since the cittizens of GOD haue had their increase by the same grace giuen 〈◊〉 the spirit from heauen in the fount of regeneration But at the last Iudgement of GOD by his Sonne Christ this onely shall appeare in a state so glorious that all the ancient shape shal be cast aside for the bodies of each member shall cast aside their olde corruption and put on a new forme of immortality For it were too grosse impudence to thinke that this was 〈◊〉 of the thousand yeares afore-sayd wherein the Church is sayd to reigne with Christ because he saith directly GOD shall wipe awaie all teares from their eies and there shal be no more death neither sorrowes neither crying neither shall there bee any more paine Who is so obstinately absurd or so absurdly obstinate as to averre that any one Saint much lesse the whole society of them shall passe this transitory life without teares or sorrowes or euer hath passed it cleare of them seeing that the more holy his desires are and the more zealous his holinesse the more teares shall bedew his Orisons Is it not the Heauenly Ierusalem that sayth My teares haue beene my meate daie and night And againe I cause my bedde euerie night to swimme and water my couch with teares and besides My sorrow is renewed Are not they his Sonnes that bewayle that which they will not forsake But bee cloathed in it that their mortality may bee re-inuested with eternity and hauing the first fruites of the spirit doe sigh in themselues wayting for the adoption that is the redemption of their bodies Was not Saint Paul one of the Heauenlie Cittie nay and that the rather in that hee tooke so great care for the earthly Israelites And when a shall death haue to doe in that Cittie but when they may say Oh death where is thy sting Oh hell where is thy b victorie The sting of death is sinne This could not bee sayd there where death had no sting but as for this world Saint Iohn himselfe saith If wee say wee haue no sinne wee deceiue our selues and there is no truth in vs. And in this his Reuelation there are many things written for the excercising of the readers vnderstanding and there are but few things whose vnderstanding may bee an induction vnto the rest for hee repeteth the same thing so many waies that it seemes wholy pertinent vnto another purpose and indeed it may often bee found as spoken in another kinde But here where hee sayth GOD shall wipe awaie all teares from their eyes c this is directly meant of the world to come and the immortalitie of the Saints for there shal be no sorrow no teares nor cause of sorrowe or teares if any one
seruant namely that same forme of a seruant wherein the highest was humbled added the name of the man From whose stock hee was to deriue that seruile forme The spirit of God came vpon him in forme of a Doue as the Ghospell testifieth Hee brought forth iudgement to the Gentiles in fore telling them of future things which they neuer knew of before Hee dyd not crie out yet ceased hee not to preach Nor was his voyce heard with out or in the streete for such as are cut off from his fold neuer heare his voyce Hee neither broake downe nor extinguished those Iewes his persecutors whose lost integrity and abandoned light made them like brused Reedes and c smoaking flaxe hee spared them for as yet hee was not come to iudge them but to bee iudged by them Hee brought forth iudgment in truth by shewing them their future plagues if they persisted in their malice His face sâ—…one on the mount his fame in the whole world hee neither failed nor fainted in that both hee and his Church stood firme against all persecutions Therefore his foes neuer had nor euer shall haue cause to thinke that fulfilled which they wished in the Psalme saying When shall hee dye and his name perish vntill hee haue setled iudgement in the earth Loe here is that wee seeke The last iudgement is that which hee shall settle vpon earth comming to effect it out of heauen As for the last wordes the Iles shall hope in his name wee see it fulfilled already Thus then by this which is so vn-deniable is that prooued credible which impudence dares yet deny For who would euer haue hoped for that which the vnbeleeuers them-selues doe now behold as well as wee to their vtter heart-breaking and confusion d Who did euer looke that the Gentiles should embrace Christianity that had seene the Author thereof bound beaten mocked and crucified That which one theefe durst but hope for vpon the crosse in that now doe the nations farre and wide repose their vtmost confidence and least they should incurre eternall death are signed with that figure where-vpon hee suffered his temporall death Let none therefore make any doubt that Christ shall bring forth such a iudgment as the Scriptures doe promise except hee beleeue not the Scriptures and stand in his owne malicious blindnesse against that which hath enlightned all the world And this iudgment shall consist of these circumstances partly precedent and partly adiacent Helias shall come the Iewes shall beleeue Antichrist shall persecute Christ shall iudge the dead shall arise the good and bad shall seuer the world shall burne and bee renewed All this wee must beleeue shall bee but in what order our full experience then shall exceed our imperfect intelligence as yet Yet verily I doe thinke they shall fall out in order as I haue rehearsed them Now remaineth there two bookes more of this theame to the perfect performance of our promise the first of which shall treate of the paines due vnto the wicked and the second of the glories bestowed vpon the righteous wherein if it please GOD wee will subuert the arguments which foolish mortalls and miserable wretches make for them-selues against GODS holy and diuine pre mises and against the sacred nutriment giuen to the soule by an vnspotted faith thinking them-selues the onely wise-men in these their vngratious cauills and deriding all religious instructions as contemptible and ridâ—…culous As for those that are wise in GOD in all that seemeth most incredible vnto man if it bee auouched by the holy Scriptures whose truth wee haue already sufficiently prooued they laye hold vpon the true and omnipotent deity as the strongest argument against all opposition for hee they know cannot possiblye speake false in those Scriptures and with-all can by his diuine power effect that which may seeme more then most impossible to the vn beleeuers L. VIVES GHrist a in person According to this iudgement of Christ did the Poets faigne thâ—… Iudges of hell for holding Ioue to be the King of Heauen they auoutched his sonne to be iudge of hell yet none of his sonnes that were wholy immortall at first as Bacchus Apollo or Mercurie was but a God that had beene also a mortall man and a iust man withall such as Minos Aeacus or Rhadamanthus was This out of Lactantius lib. 7. b No mention Hierom. in 42. Esai c Smoking flaxe It was a custome of old saith Plutarch in Quaestionib neuer to put out the snuffe of the lampe but to let it die of it selfe and that for diuers reasons first because this fire was some-what like in nature to that inextinguible immortall fire of heauen secondly they held this fire to be a liuing creature and therefore not to bee killed but when it did mischiefe That the fire was aliuing creature the want that it hath of nutriment and the proper motion besides the grone it seemeth to giue when it is quenshed induced them to affirme Thirdly because it is vnfit to destroy any thing that belongeth to mans continuall vse as fire or water c. But wee ought to leaue them to others when our owne turnes are serued Thus far Plutarch The first reason tendeth to religion the second to mansuetude the third to humanity d Who did euer looke Christ was not ignoraâ—… of the time to come nor of the eternity of his doctrine as his leauing it to the publishing of onely twelue weake men against the malicious opposition of all Iudea and his commanding them to preach it throughout the whole world doth sufficiently prooue besides his prophecying to the Apostles that they should all abandon him and hee bee led to death that night and yet againe hee promiseth them to be with them to the end of the world Finis lib. 20. THE CONTENTS OF THE ONE and twentith booke of the City of God 1. Why the punishment of the damned is here disputed of before the happinesse of the Saints 2. Whether an earthly body may possibly bee incorruptible by fire 3. Whether a fleshly body may possibly endure eternall paine 4. Natures testimonies that bodies may remaine vndiminished in the fire 5. Of such things as cannot bee assuredlie knowne to be such and yet are not to be doubted of 6. All strange effects are not natures some are mans deuises some the deuills 7. Gods omnipotency the ground of all beliefe in things admired 8. That the alteration of the knowne nature of any creature vnto a nature vnknowne is not opposite vnto the lawes of nature 9. Of Hell and the quality of the eternall paines therein 10. Whether the fire of hell if it be corporall can take effect vpon the incorporeal deuills 11. Whether it be not iustice that the time of the paines should bee proportioned to the time of the sinnes and criâ—…es 12. The greatnesse of Adams sin inflicting eternall damnation vpon all that are out of the state of grace 13. Against such as hold that the torments after the
Iudgement shal be but the meanes whereby the soules shal be purified 14. The temporall paines of this life afflicting al man-kinde 15. That the scope of Gods redeeming vs is wholy pertinent to the world to come 16. The lawes of Grace that all the â—…regenerate are blessed in 17. Of some christians that held that hells paines should not be eternal 18. Of those that hold that the Intercession of the Saints shal saue all men from damnation 19. Of such as hold that heretiques shal be saued in that they haue pertaken of the body of Christ. 20. Of such as allow this deliuerance onely to wicked and reuolted Catholikes 21. Of such as affirme that al that abide in the Catholike faith shal be saued for that faith 22. Of such as affirme that the sinnes committed amongst the workes of mercy shal not be called into Iudgement 23. Against those that exclude both men deuils from paines eternal 24. Against those that would proue al damnation frustrate by the praiers of the Saints 25. Whether that such as beeing baptized by heretiques become wicked in life or amongst Catholiques and then fal away into heresies schismes or contynuing amongst Catholiques be of vicious conuersation can haue any hope of escaping damnation by the priuiledge of the Sacraments 26. What it is to haue Christ for the foundation where they are that shal be saued as it were by fire 27. Against those that thinke those sinnes shall not be laid to their charge wherewith they mixed some workes of mercy FINIS THE ONE AND TVVENTITH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Why the punishment of the damned is here disputed of before the happinesse of the Saints CHAP. 1. SEEing that by the assistance of Our LORD and SAVIOVR IESVS CHRIST the Iudge of the quick and the dead we haue brought both the Citties the one whereof is GODS and the other the deuills vnto their intended consummation wee are now to proceed by the helpe of GOD in this booke with the declaration of the punishment due vnto the deuill and all his confederacy And this I choose to doe before I handle the glories of the blessed because both these the wicked are to vndergo their sentences in body and soule and it may seeme more incredible for an earthly body to endure vndissolued in eternall paines then without all paine in euerlasting happinesse So that when I haue shewne the possibility of the first it may bee a great motiue vnto the confirmation of the later Nor doth this Methode want a president from the Scriptures themselues which some-times relate the beatitude of the Saints fore-most as here They that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation and some times afterward as here The Sonne of man shall send forth his Angells and they shall gather out of his Kingdome al things that offend and them which doe iniquitie and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shal be wayling and gnashing of teeth Then shall the iust shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Father and againe And these shall goe into euerlasting paine and the righteous into life eternall Besides hee that will looke into the Prophets shall finde this ordeâ—… often obserued it were too much for me to recite all my reason why I obserue it heere I haue set downe already Whether an earthly bodie may possibly be incorruptible by fire CHAP. 2. WHat then shall I say vnto the vn-beleeuers to prooue that a body carnall and liuing may endure vndissolued both against death and the force of eternall fire They will not allowe vs to ascribe this vnto the power of God but vrge vs to prooue it to them by some example If wee shall answere them that there are some creatures that are indeed corruptible because mortall yet doe liue vntouched in the middest of the fire and likewise that there are a kinde a of Wormes that liue without being hurt in the feruent springs of the hot bathes whose heare some-times is such as none can endure and yet those wormes doe so loue 〈◊〉 liue in it that they cannot liue without it this either they will not beleeue vnlesse they see it or if they doe see it or heare it affirmed by sufficient authority then they cauill at it as an insufficient proofe for the proposed question for that these creatures are not eternall howsoeuer and liuing thus in this heate nature hath made it the meane of their growth and nutriment not of their torment As though it were not more incredible that fire should nourish any thing rather then not consume it It is strange for any thing to be tormented by the fire and yet to liue but it is stranger to liue in the fire and not to bee tormented If then this later be credible why is not the first so also L. VIVES A Kinde a of wormes There are some springs that are hot in their eruptions by reason of their passages by vaines of sulphurous matter vnder ground Empedocles holds that the fire which is included in diuers places of the earth giueth them this heate Senec. Quaest. nat lib. 3. Their waters are good for many diseases Many of those naturall bathes there are in Italy and likewise in Germany whereof those of Aquisgrane are the best Of these bathes read Pliny lib. 1. 32. In these waters doe the wormes liue that he speaketh of Whether a fleshly body may possibly endure eternall paine CHAP. 3. YEa but say they a there is no body that can suffer eternally but it must perish aâ—… length How can we tell that Who can tell whether the b deuills doe suffer in their bodies when as the confesse they are extreamely tormented If they answere that there is no earthly soule and visible body or to speake all in one no flesh that can suffer alwaies and neuer die what is this but to ground an assertion vpon meere sence and apparance for these men know no flesh but mortall and what they haue not knowne and seene that they hold impossible And what an argument it this to make paine the proofe of death when it is rather the testimony of life for though our question bee whether any thing liuing may endure eternall paine and yet liue still yet are wee sure it cannot feele any paine at all vnlesse it liue paine beeing inseperably adherent vnto life if it be in any thing at all Needs then must that liue that is pained yet is there no necessity that this or that paine should kill it for all paine doth not kill all the bodies that perish Some paine indeed must by reason that the soule and the body are so conioyned that they cannot part without great torment which the soule giueth place vnto and the mortall frame of man beeing so weake that it cannot withstand this c violence thereupon are they seuered But afterwards
both on the earth and in the earth the mountaine tops giue it vp in aboundance nay more wee see that fire is produced out of earthâ—… namely of wood and stones and what are these but earthly bodyes yea but the elementary fire say they is pure hurtlesse quiet and eternall and this of ours turbulent smoakie corrupting and corruptible Yet doth it not corrupt nor hurt the hills where-in it burneth perpetually nor the hollowes within ground where it worketh most powerfully It is not like the other indeed but adapted vnto the conuenient vse of man But why then may we not beleeue that the nature of a corruptible body may bee made incorruptible and fitte for heauen as well as we see the elementary fire made corruptible and fitte for vs So that these arguments drawne from the sight and qualities of the elements can no way diminish the power that Almighty God hath to make mans body of a quality fitte and able to inhabite the heauens L. VIVES A Fifth a body But Aristotle frees the soule from all corporeall beeing as you may read De anima lib. 1. disputing against Democritus Empedocles Alcmâ—…on Plato and Xenocrates But indeed Plato teaching that the soule was composed of celestiall fire taken from the starres and with-all that the starres were composed of the elementary bodies made Aristotle thinke else-where that it was of an elementary nature as well as the starres whence it was taken But in this hee mistooke him-selfe and miss-vnderstood his maister But indeed Saint Augustine in this place taketh the opinion of Aristotle from Tully for Aristotles bookes were rare and vntranslated as then who saith that hee held their soule to bee quintam naturam which Saint Augustine calleth quintum corpus a fifth body seuerall from the elementary compounds But indeede it is a question whether Aristotle hold the soule to bee corporeall or no hee is obscure on both sides though his followers â—…old that it is absolutely incorporeall as wee hold generally at this day And Tullyes words were cause both of Saint Augustines miss-prision and like-wise set almost all the Grecians both of this age and the last against him-selfe for calling the soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas they say Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is habitio perfecta and not motio pereâ—…nis as Tullyes word implieth But alas why should Tully be so baited for so small an error O let vs bee ashamed to vpbraide the father of Latine eloquence with any misprision for his errors are generally more learned then our labours Against the Infidels calumnies cast out in scorne of the Christians beleefe of the resurrection CHAP. 12. BVt in their scrupulous inquiries touching this point they come against vs with such scoffes as these Whether shall the Ab-ortiue births haue any part in the resurrection And seeing the LORD saith there shall noâ—… one haire of your headperish whether shall all men bee of one stature and bignesse or no If they bee how shall the Ab-ortiues if they rise againe haue that at the resurrection which they wanted at the first Or if they doe not rise againe because they were neuer borne but cast out wee may make the same doubt of infants where shall they haue that bignesse of body which they wanted when they died for they you know are capable of regeneration and therefore must haue their part in the resurrection And then these Pagans aske vs of what height and quantity shall mens bodies be then If they bee as tall as euer was any man then both little and many great ones shall want that which they wanted here on earth and whence shall they haue it But if it bee true that Saint Paul saith thâ—…t wee shall meete vnto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of CHRIST and againe if that place Hee predestinated them to bee made like to the Image of his Sonne imply that all the members of Christs Kingdome shal be like him in shape and stature then must many men say they forgoe part of the stature which they had vpon earth And then where is that great protection of euery haire if there bee such a diminution made of the stature and body Besides wee make a question say they whether man shall arise withall the haire that euer the Barber cut from his head If hee doe who will not loath such an ougly sight for so likewise must it follow that hee haue on all the parings of his nayles And where is then that comelinesse which ought in that immortality to bee so farre exceeding that of this world while man is in corruption But if hee doe not rise with all his haire then it is lost and where is your scriptures then Thus they proceed vnto fatnesse and leannesse If all bee a like say they then one shall bee fatte and another leane So that some must loose flesh and some must gaine some must haue what they wanted and some must leaue what they had Besides as touching the putrefaction and dissolution of mens bodies part going into dust part into ayre part into fire part into the guttes of beasts and birds part are drowned and dissolued into water these accidents trouble them much and make them thinke that such bodies can neuer gather to flesh againe Then passe they to deformities as monstrous births misse-shapen members scarres and such like inquiring with scoffes what formes these shall haue in the resurrection For if wee say they shall bee all taken away then they come vpon vs with our doctrine that CHRIST arose with his woundes vpon him still But their most difficult question of all is whose flesh shall that mans bee in the resurrection which is eaten by another man through compulsion of hunger for it is turned into his flesh that eateth it and filleth the parts that famine had made hollow and leane Whether therefore shall hee haue it againe that ought it at first or hee that eate it and so ought it afterwards These doubts are put vnto our resolutions by the scorners of our faith in the resurrection and they themselues doe either estate mens soules for euer in a state neuer certaine but now wretched and now blessed as Plato doth or else with Porphyry they affirme that these reuolutions doe tosse the soule along time but notwithstanding haue a finall end at last leauing the spirit at rest but beeing vtterly separated from the body for euer Whether Ab-ortiues belong not to the resurrection if they belong to the dead CHAP. 13. TO all which obiections of theirs I meane by GODS helpe to answere and first as touching Ab-ortiues which die after they are quick in the mothers wombe that such shall rise againe I dare neither affirme nor deny Yet if they bee reckned amongst the dead I see no reason to exclude them from the resurrection For either all the dead shall not rise againe and the soules that had no bodies sauing in the mothers wombe shall continue
fellow enemy to Nicias Demosthenes and almost vnto all honest men yet no euill souldior if wee may trust Thucidides and Plutarch against him did Aristophanes make a comedy and hee called it Equites the Knights and when the Poet would haue presented this view of Cleons extortion and tyrranous rapine to the people the workeman durst not make a visar like Cleons face for feare of his power So the Poet was faine to dawbe the actors faces with wine lees and yet they being afraid to enter vpon the Stage Aristophanes himselfe came forth alone and acted Cleon so great was his rancour against him For which afterwards hee was accused of Cleon and fined at fiue talents as himselfe complaineth in his comedy called Acharnenses that is hee cast vp as much as hee had taken in for perhaps Demosthenes and Nicias had hired him to write it as Melitus Anitus Socrates his enemies gotte him with money to pen that comedie called Nephelis He was a man that wrote much when he was drunke This Cleon Plutarch mentioneth in his Politickes also e Cleophon This fellow saith Plutarch was such another as Cleon. f Hyperbolus Thucidides and Plutarch and Lucian also in his Misanthropus do mention this fellow with the additions of a wicked Cittizen and affirme that he was banished the Citty by the law of Ostracisme a kinde of suffrage-giuing not for any feare of his power dignitie as others were but as the common shame and scandall of the whole towne Cicero in his Brutus speaking of Glaucias saith He was a man most like Hyperbolus of Athens whose vile conditions the olde Athenian Comedies gaue such bitter notes of That he was taxed by Eupolis Quintilian intimaâ—…es in his first booke of his Institutions speaking of Musick And Caelius Rhodoginus hath a whole Chapter of him Lection Antiquâ—…r lib. 9. g Of the Censor Euery fift yeare the Romaines elected two to ouer-see the Census that is to estimate and Iudge of the wealth manners and esteeme of euery particular citizen And herevpon they were called Censors for as Festus saith euery one held himselfe worth so much as they rated him at and the Maisters of the manners So saith Cicero vnto Appius Pulcher. h Pericles This man by his eloquence and other ciuill institutions did so winne the hearts of the Athenians to him that he was made the gouernor of that common-weale for many yeares together being euer both wise and fortunate in warres abroad and in peace at home Eupolis an old Comedian saith that On his lips sat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Goddesse of perswasion whom fully de oratore lib. 3 calleth Lepor Eanius Suada and Horace by the diminutiue Suadela of the matter of those verses Cicero and Quintilian make very often vse in Greeke fragments for the whole Comedies of Eupolis and many more are now lost These verses are extant in the first Booke of Plinius â—…ecilius his Epistles and part of them also in Suidas I much maruell that Politian mentions neither of them in his Chapter of his Centaures where hee speaketh of this The verses hee hath out of one of Aristides his interpretours whom he nameth not Indeed I deny not but that there are more of his verses then are either in Suidas or Plinie Aristophanes also the ancient Comedian said that Pericles cast lightning and thunder from his lippes and confounded all Greece And this both Eupolis and hee spake in the powring out of their callumnies against him as Tully de orat lib. 3. de perfecto oratore and Quintilian liber 12. doe both affirme The Comedian scoffed also at his long shaped head and therefore hee was alwayes pictured in his Helmitte i For our Plautus Liuie was the first Latine Poet as I haue sayd before and next after him Naeuius who serued as a souldiar in the first warre of Affricke Then Plautus almost of the same time with Naeuius hee left many comedies the most part whereof wee haue and there was no part of all that or the following age that pleased better then hee Scipio calleth him Our Plautus not that he euer knew him but because he was a latine Poet and he had spoken of the Greekes before k P. or C. Scipio These were brethren and as Seruius saith twinnes Publius was father to the Greater Scipio Affrican Cneius vnto Nasica that good man of whom wee spake before They were both slaine in Spaine by the Africanes in the second Carthaginian warre which began in the Consulship of Publius Tully in his Oration for Cornelius Gallus calles these two brethren the two Thunderbolts of the Empire and some say that that verse of Virgill is meant of them Geminos duo fulmina belli Scipiadas Aenaed 6. Scipiades belli â—…ulmen Carthaginis horror c. two thunderbolts of warre The Scipios taking it out of Lucretius Warres thunder Scipio Carthages dread feare c. So that these Poets liued in their times l Or Caecilius Caecilius Statius liued in the Macedonian and Asian warre and was chamber-fellow with Ennius Volcatius Sedigitus giues him the pricke and praise for Commedy and Horace approoues his grauity We haue nothing of his now extant Tully seemes not to like of his phrase m Marcus Cato The Elder hee that first made the Portian family honorable hee was borne at Tusculum and attained the honor of Consul Triumph and Censor Beeing but of meane discent the nobility enuied him wholy but his authority with the Commonalty was very great he liued in the times of Ennius and Caecilius n Few things vpon paine of death There were very few crimes with the old Romanes punished with death and farre fewer in the times that followed for the Portian lawe forbad the death of any condemned Citizen allowing onely his banishment So that it being held death-worthy to depraue any man by writing proues that the Romanes were extreamely afraid of infamy But here let the Reader obserue the meaning of this law out of Festus who speaking of this Capitis Diminutio this Capitall Punishment writeth thus He is said to be capite diminutus capitally punished that is banished that of a free man is made a bondslaue to another that is forbidden fire and water and this the Lawiers call Maxima capitis diminutio the most capitall punishment of all For there are three kindes of it the greatest the meane and the smallest This I thought good to set downe not out of mine owne iudgement Horace writeth thus vnto Augustus Quin etiam lex Paenaque dicta malo quae nollet carmine quenquam Describi vertêre modum formidine fustis c. besides a penall law Frobidding all such verse as shame prouokes So changed they their notes for feare of stroakes c. Porphiry vpon this place saith he that wrote infamous verses vpon any man was iudged to be beaten with clubs But Acron maketh Horace to speake metaphorically o Acte The
Ioues owne braine why is not she then made the absolut Empresse of heauen seeing yâ— she sitteth aboue Ioue Because it is not meet to make the child Lord ouer the parent why then was not that equity kept between Saturne Iupiter because Saturne was conquered why then belike they fought no yâ— gods forbid say they yâ— is but a poeticall fiction a fable well thus you see they will trust no fables they do thinke better of their gods then so but how chanceth it then that Saturne seeing hee might not sit aboue his sonne Iâ—…ue had not a seate equall with him Because i Saturne say they is nothing but the length of time well then they that worship Saturne worshippe Time and Ioue the King of all the gods is said to be borne of Time and what wrong doe we to Ioue and Iuno in saying they are borne of Time seeing that by the Paganes owne confessions they signifie Heauen and Earth both which were created in time for this the greatest schollers and k wisest of them all commend to our memory nor did Virgill speake out of fiction but out of Philosophy when he said Tum pater ommiâ—…otens saecundis imbribus Aether Coniugis in gremium laeâ—…ae descendit Almighty Aether in a fatning shower Dropt in the lappe of his glad spouse That was the Earth In which they make a difference also for herein l Terra and Tellus and Tellumon are al seueral things they say And all these they haue as gods distinct in name office and ceremoniall rites Terra m is also called the mother of the Gods besides that the poets may now faigne with farre more toleration seeing that their very bookes of religion affirme that Iuno is not only wife and sister but 〈◊〉 mother also vnto Ioue The same Earth they stile both o Ceres Vesta yet p Vesta they say most commonly is the fire and guardeth that which the citty cannot want And therefore the Virgins kept it because fire and Virginity do neuer bring forth any thing All which vanity it was fit hee onely should abolish that was borne of a Virgin But who can endure to heare them ascribe so much honor and chastity to the fire and yet not shame to call q Vesta Venus that her Virgins might haue the lesse care of the honor of virginity for if Venus were Vesta r how should the Virgins do her good seruice in abstayning from venery or s are there two Venâ—…sses the one a Virgin the other a wanton or three rather one of the virgins Vesta one of the wiues one of the whores to such an one as this last is the t Phaenicans coÌ„secrated the prostitution of their daughters before that they maried them now which of these is Vulcans wife not the Virgin she neuer had husband not the whore oh no not v Iunos sonne x Mineruas forgeâ—… be wronged Well then it was Venus the wife yet we would haue her to stand as a patterne to bee imitated for her trickes that shee playd with Mars oh now say they you runne to the fables againe why what reason is there that you should greeue to here those things at our tonges and yet explaud them on your owne stages why doth it vexe you that we should say a thing vtterly incredible but that it is so fully proued that those foule and open crimes of their gods instituted and celebrated in their publike honors and by their own commaunds L. VIVES BEcause a we place Cir. 2. de nat deor The Skie as Ennius Euripides the South-sayers and the whole world affirme is Ioue the Ayre betweene that and the Sea as the Stoicks hold is Iuno sister and wife to Ioue by reason of the ayres likenesse and nearenesse to Heauen now they made the ayre a woman because it is the softest thing that b is Neptune Saturnes three sonnes shared the world Ioue had Heauen Neptune the Sea Pluto the Earth Iuno married Ioue and was made Lady of the Ayre this fable arose from thence because that in the deuiding of the fathers kingdome Ioue got the East resembling Heauen wherein also mount Olimpus stood whose likelyhood of name added to the fiction Neptune had the nauy Dis or Pluto the west part of the realme fained to bee hell Saturne was said to bee banished into Hel because he fled from the East into Italy lying in the West c Salacia of Salum the salt fome varro the water old of faith fest was called Salacia a salum ciendo of mouing the froth so the Poet Pacuuius vseth it Neptune was a cunning seaman and made Admirall by Ioue for which posterity deified him d Proserpina Of hir before Hir mother finding her in Hell begged and obtayned of Ioue that she might be halfe the yeare with her on earth and halfe a yeare with Pluto Shee had her name A proserpendo because she crept some while this way and some while that being all one with the Moone and the earth Uarro you may read of her rape almost euery where e foure First fire then ayre then water and lastly earth f skie Heauen it selfe and the vpper region of the aire they called Ethaer or the skie the lower parts ayre onely though the Poets confound them g Minerua daughter of Ioue and Themis saith Euhemerus Hist. sacr There were fiue Mineruas but the Poets confound them all Tull. de nat deor One was borne they say of Ioues braine and is the Goddesse of all wisdome and therefore was held so borne and a Virgine and her throne was counted the highest in heauen Martian Nupt. lib. 6. Virgo armata deceas rerum sapientia Pallas Aetherius fomes mens solertia fâ—…ti Ingenium mundi prudentia sacra tonantis Aâ—…dor doctificus nostraeque industria sortis Quae faâ—…is arbiâ—…ium sapientis praeuia curae Aâ—… rationis apex diuumque hom númque sacer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vlâ—…a terga means rapidi ac splendentis Olympi Celsior vna Ioue flammantis circulus aetâ—…rae Paslas thou armed Virgin wisdomes wonder Fate iudging faire fount of Aethereall light Worlds vnderstanding and arbritreâ—…e of thunder Arâ—…s ardor spring wherein man cleares his sight Discretions arch which reason raigneth vnder Essence in gods and men suâ—… mounting bright Towrâ—…ng beyond the Spheares and all in fire Thron'd aboue Ioue far brighter and far higher h in the capitol Now Ioue almighty saith Tully that rulest all and then Iuno his fellow and thou Pallas Minerua and all you gods that inhabite the capitoll c. Pro equit in exil Tarquiâ—… Priscus in the Sabine warre vow'd a temple to Ioue Iuno and Minerua and playned the top of Mount Tarpeius to make a place for it to stand in but was slaine â—…e hee had laid the foundation so it was renewed and finished by Tarquin the proud and called the capitoll because of a mans head that was found in digging the foundation Before this there was a temple to Ioue Iuno and Minerua on Floras
slaue he was preferred to the Kingdom partly because he saw that Fortune had an especial hand in the occasions of humain affaires Plut. Prob. c Without any respect As far as we know and therfore she is said to come without cause because we cannot perceiue them as Aristotle and Plato saith Speusippus saith that fortune is a motion from one secret cause vnto another Hereof read Aristotles Physickes lib. de bono Fortunae lib. being a part of his moralty d Blind This Aristophanes reciteth very conceitedly of Plutus who is godde of gaine Lucian hath vsed the argument in his Misanthropus e Send her So saith Aristophanes and that Plutus being sent by Ioue vnto good men goeth lamely but vnto the bad with speed Of a Goddesse called Fortuna Muliebris CHAP. 19 NAy they are in such dotage vppon this same Fortune that they doe stedfastly affirme that the Image a which the Matrons dedicated and named Fortuna Muliebris the womans fortune didde speake particular wordes and that not once but often saying that they hadde b dedicated her in a very good order and respect which if it were true we ought not to wonder at For the Diuells can vse this cousenage with ease which was the more discouerable in that it was she that spoke who followeth chance and not desert Fortune spoke but Faelicitie was silent vnto what other end was this but onely to make men neglect lining well seeing that without any desert this Lady Fortune might make them fortunate But yet if Fortune did speake the c mans fortune me thinks should haue spoken and not the womans because otherwise d the women that consecrated the statue might bee thought to faine that the Image spoke because they loue so well to be heard speake them-selues L. VIVES THe Image a which After Romes freedom from the Kings 18. yeares Coriolanus warring inexorably against his countrey neither departing for threates nor teares the womens lamentations turned him away and here-vpon they erected a Temple to Fortuna Muliebris in the Latine Road foure miles from Rome In which dedication the Image spoke twise First thus Matrons well haue you seene mee and dedicated me Liu. Valer. Plut. Lactantius saith that shee fore-told a danger to insue Which were questionlesse the wordes that shee spake the second time It was sacriledge for any but such as had once bin marryed to touch this Image Festus b Dedicated Propter in the Latine is superfluous c Mans fortune Whose Temple was on Tybers banke and hir feast in Aprils Calends Ouid fast 4. d Women For men would bee sooner trusted then women Of the Deifiaction of Vertue and Faith by the Pagans and of their omission of the worship that was due to diuers other gods if it bee true that these were goddes CHAP. 20. THey made a goddesse also of a Vertue which if shee were such should take place of a great many of the rest But beeing no goddesse but a guift of God let it bee obtained of him that alone hath power of the guift of it and farewell all the buryed roll of these counterfeit gods But why is Faith made a goddesse and graced with a Temple and an Altar VVho-soeuer knowes faith well maketh his owne bosome hir Temple But how know they what Faith is when her cheefe office is to beleeue in the true God And why may not Vertue suffice is not Faith there where Vertue is They diuide b Vertue but into foure partes Prudence Iustice Fortitude and Temperance and because euery one of these hath seuerall sub-diuisions therefore falleth c Faith to bee a part of Iustice and is of cheefe power with vs that know that the Iust shall liue by faith But I wonder of these men that doe so thirst after store of goddes that hauing made Faith a goddesse they will so neglect a great many goddesses more of her nature to whome they should afford Temples and Altars as well as to her VVhy is not Temperance made a goddesse hauing giuen such lustre to diuers d Romaine Princes Nor Fortitude that held e Scaeuolas hand in the fire and went with f Curtius into the spatious gulfe for the loue of his country And stood by the two Decij g the father and h the sonne when they vowed their liues to their nation i If by the way this were true valour in them as it is a question but not disputable heere VVhy are not Prudence and Wisedome made Deities as well as the rest Because they are all worshipped vnder the generall name of Vertue So might all the supposed partes of one GOD bee intyrely worshipped in his sole and particular worshippe But in Vertue there is Faith and k Chastity as partes indeed and yet those must haue peculiar Altars and Sacrifices But it is vanity and not verity that turnes such qualyties into Deities L. VIVES OF a Vertue Mancellus in his first Consulshippe vowed a Temple to her in Gallia And his son built it at Port Capena Liu. lib. 29. The next Marius built to Vertue and Honour lower then the other least the Augurs should pull it downe for hindering of them in beholding the Birdes flight Cic. de leg lib. 2. Lette them worshippe those thinges that helpe men to Heauen Faith Wisdome Piety and Vertue Faithes Temple was in the Capitoll Plin. lib. XXXV Cic. offic 3. neare vnto Ioues and was his oth as Tully saith out of Ennius and Cicero de nat deo 2. It is said that Attillius Calatine consecrated her Some saie Aneas didde long before Romulus Festus Liu. Then were two Diumuirs elected for dedicating the Temples Q. Fab. Maxim and Attilius Crassus The Temples were dedicated to Mens and Venus Erycina both in the Capitoll and but a gutter betweene them Dionisius Plut. say that Numa dedicated the Image of Faith and made hir name the greatest oth of all b Vertue but Plato Aristotle c. c Faith to bee Faith is the foundation of iustice Cic. offic 1. Piety is iustice towards the goddes whereof Faith is a part De nat deo lib. 1. So saith Speusippus d Romaine Princes Here were a place for Valerius his examples of moderation profit by foes abstinence continence necessity and shamefastnesse for all these saith Tully depend on Temperance e Scaeuola's Porsenna besieging Rome Scâ—…uola went disguised into his Tents and got so neare that he killed the Kings Secretary in stead of the King and when Porsenna bad torture him he put his hand boldly into the fire of sacrifice being at hand and held it there till the King and all about him were amazed with feare and admiration f Curtius They say there was a lake in the Market-place of Rome which afterwards dryed vp it was called Curtius his lake some say of Metius Curtius the Sabine that swamme ouer it with his horse Others of M. Curtius the Gentleman of Rome that vpon the Oracles bidding the Romaines cast the thing of best worth
Sarpedon from death the fates constrayning him to die and Neptune greeues that hee coulâ—… not hinder Vlisses his returne home and reuenge the blindnesse of his sonne Ciclops Fate hauing decreede the contrary and Iupiter in Ouid saith Tu sola insuperabile satum Nate mouere putas Daughter'tis onely thou Canst mooue relentlesse fate Saith he And a little after Quae â—…que conâ—…ursum caeli nec fulminiâ—… iram Nec â—…tuunt vllas tuta atque aeterna ruinas Which feare nor thunders gods nor powers infernall But stand vnaw'd vnmooued and eternall There were some that held nothing casuall but all fixed certaine and immutable Democritus Empedocles and Heraclitus were all of this opinion which many others maintained after them as others did the positions of Epicurus Lucane Phars lib. 2. declareth both the opinions in these words Siue parens rerum primùm informia regna Materiamque rudem flammâ cedente recepit Fiâ—…xit in aeternum causas quà cuncta coâ—… cet Se quoque lege tenens secula iussa â—…rentem Fatorum immoto diuisit limite mundum Siue nihil positum est sed sors incerta vagatur Fértque refertque vices habent mortalia casum c. Or natures God when first he bound the fire And wrought this maâ—…e into one forme intire Forged eternall causes all effecting Himâ—…elfe and all the worlds estate subiecting To destenies inchangeable directing Oâ—… bene our states in fortunes gouernance To rise or fall and all by onely chance Fortune is often vsed for destenie and the euents of things which when they fall out as wee desire that we call Felicitie if contrary Infelicitie Thus much here more else-where b The will of God Of this by and by c A power of the starrrs wherein the Stoickes Plato and almost all the other Philosophers do place Fate following the Chaldees and Aegiptians to whom all the Mathematitians also doe giue their voyces d Some do seperate Some say the operation of the starres is a distinct power from the will of God and in attributing this vniuersall power to them exclude Gods prouidence from humaine affaires Besides there are that affirme that although God doe looke to the state of the world yet the starres haue their peculiar dominion in vs neuerthelesse So hold Manilius and Firmicus and the Poets most commonly Others subiect them all vnto the will of GOD omnipotent as Plato and the Stoikes doe affirming all their operations to bee but the praescript lawes of him e But if the starres Origen vpon that place of Genesis Let them be for signes Chapt. 1. vers 14. Saith that the starres doe signifie but effect nothing They are saith he as a booke opened wherein may bee read all things to come which may bee prooued by this that they haue often signified things past But this booke cannot bee read by any witte of man Plotine was of Origens opinion also denying the starres any acte in those things but onely signification Seneca speaking of the Starres saith they either cause or signifie the effects of all things but if they doe cause them what auaileth it vs to know that we cannot alter and if they but signifie them what good doth it thee to fore-see that thou canst not auoide f Mars in such Mars is a starre bloudie fiery and violent Being in the seuenth house saith Firmicus lib. 3. in a partise aspect with the Horoscope that is in the West hee portendeth huge mischieues stayning the natiuities with murthers and many other villanies g To grant them Hee alludeth vnto Tullies Chrysippus de Fato that would teach the Mathematicians how to speake in their art Of the mutuall simpathie and dissimilitude of health of body and many other accidents in twins of one birth CHAP. 2. CIcero a saith that Hippocrates that excellent Phisitian wrote that two children that were brethren falling sicke and the sicknesse waxing and waning in both alike were here-vpon suspected to be twinnes b And Posidonius a Stoike and one much affected to Astrologie laboureth to prooue them to haue bin borne both vnder one constellation and c conceiued both vnder one So that which the Phisitian ascribeth to the similitude of their temperatures of body the Astrologian attributes to the power and position of the starrs in their natiuities But truly in this question the Phisitians coniecture standeth vpon more probabilitie because their parents temperature might bee easily transfused into them both alike at their conception and their first growth might participate equally of their mothers disposition of body then being nourished both in one house with one nourishment in one ayre countrie and other things correspondent this now might haue much power in the proportionating of both their natures alike as Physicke will testifie Besides vse of one exercise equally in both might forme their bodies into a similitude which might very well admit all alterations of health alike and equally in both But to drawe the figure of heauen and the starres vnto this purity of passions it being likely that a great companie of the greatest diuersitie of affects that could bee might haue originall in diuerse parts of the world at one and the same time were a presumption vnpardonable For d we haue knowne two twinnes that haue had both diuerse fortunes and different sicknesses both in time and nature whereof mee thinkes Hipocrates giueth a very good reason from the e diuersitie of nourishment and exercise which might bee cause of different health in them yet that diuersitie was effected by their wills and elections at first and not by their temperature of body But neither Posidonius nor any patron of this fate in the starres can tell what to say in this case and doe not illude the single and ignorant with a discourse of that they know not for that they talke of the space of time between that point which they call the f Horoscope in both the twinnes natiuities it is either not so significant as the diuersitie of will acte manners and fortune of the twinnes borne doth require or else it is more significant then their difference of honors state nobilitie or meannesse will permit both which diuersities they place onely in the figure of the natiuitie But if they should be both borne ere the Horoscope were fully varied then would I require an vnitie in each particular of their fortunes which g cannot be found in any two twinnes that euer yet were borne But if the Horoscope be changed ere both bee borne then for this diuersitie I will require a h difference of parents which twins cannot possibly haue L. VIVES CIcero a saith I cannot remember where I beleeue in his booke De fato which is wonderfully mutilate and defectiue as we haue it now and so shall any one finde that will obserue it b Whom Posidonius A Rhodian and a teacher of Rhodes Hee was also at Rome a follower of Panaetius Cicero c conceiued both for the conception is of as
Creator But the causes voluntary God Angels Men and diuers other creatures haue often in their wil and power i If we may call that power a will by which the brute beastes flye their owne hurt and desire their good by Natures instinct That there is a will in Angels I doe absolutely affirme be they good whom we call Gods Angells or euill whome we call the diuels Angels fiends or diuels them-selues So men good and bad haue all their wills and hereby it is apparant that the efficient causes of all effects are nothing but the decrees of that nature which is The spirit of life Aire or wind is called a Spirit But because it is a body it is not the spirit of life But the spirit of life that quickneth all things is the Creator of all bodies and all created spirits this is God a spirit from eternity vncreated in his wil there is that height of power which assisteth the wills of the good spirits iudgeth the bad disposeth of al giuing power to whom he pleaseth and holding it from whome he list For as he is a Creator of all natures so is hee of all powers but not the giuer of all wills for wicked wills are not of him beeing against that nature which is of him So the bodyes are all subiect vnto diuers wills some to our owne wills that is the wills rather of men then of beasts som to the Angels but all to the will of God vnto whom al wills are subiect because they haue no power but what hee giueth them The cause then that maketh all and is not made it selfe is God The other causes do both effect and are effected such are all created spirits chiefly the reasonable ones The corporal causes which are rather effects then otherwise are not to be counted as efficient causes because they came but to do that which the will of the spirit within them doth inioine thē how then can that set order of causes in Gods foreknowledge depriue our wils of power seeing they bear such a sway amongst the very causes them-selues But k let Cicero rangle his fellowes that say this order is fatall or rather fate it selfe which we abhor because of the word chieflly being vsed in a false beliefe but wheras he denieth that God knoweth assuredly the set order of those causes we detest his assertion worse then the Stoiks do for he either denieth God which he indeuoreth vnder a false person in his bookes De n◅t de Or if he do acknowledge him yet in denying him this fore-knowledge he saith but as the foole said in his heart There is no God for if God want the praescience of all future euents hee is not God And therefore l our wills are of as much power as God would haue them and knew before that they should be and the power that they haue is theirs free to do what they shall do truly and freely because he fore-knew that they should haue this power and do these acts whose fore-knowledge cannot be deceiued wherefore if I list to vse the m word fate in any thing I would rather say that it belonged to the weaker and that will belonged to the higher who hath the other in his power rather then grant that our liberty of will were taken away by that sette order which the Stoikes after a peculiar phraze of their owne call fate L. VIVES EIther a in God De diuinat lib 2. where in a disputation with his brother Quintus he indeauoureth to ouerthrow diuination for which Q. had stood in the booke before For he saith that There is nothing so contrary to reason and constancy as fortune is so that mee thinkes God him-selfe should haue no fore-knowledge of those casuall euents For if he haue it must come so to passe as he knoweth and then it is not casuall but casuall euents there are and therefore there is no fore-knowledge of them This in the said place and much more pertaining to the explaining of this chapter which it sufficeth vs to haue pointed out b A fate to the Stars They all doe so but some giue fate the originall from them excluding God c Lucilius Balbus In the end of the book thus he concludeth This said we departed Velleius holding Cotta's disputation for the truer and I being rather inclined to Balbus suit d Of him-selfe For in his 2. booke hee speaketh him-selfe and confuteth his brothers assertions for diuination e Stoikes Of this in the next chapter f Vnlesse fate Var. de Ling. lat l. 8. The destinies giue a fortune to the childe at the birth and this is called fate of fari to speake Lucan lib. 9. Non vocibus vllis Numen eget dixitquesem◅l nascentibus auctor Quicquid scire licet The Deities neuer need Much language fate but once no more doth read The fortune of each birth It seemes hee borrowed this out of the Psalme heere cited or out of Iob. chap. 33. v. 14. Hee hath spoke once and hath not repeated it againe Both which places demonstrat the constancy of Gods reuealed knowledge by that his once speaking as the common interpretation is the which followeth in the Psalme these two things c. some refer to them which followeth That power belongeth c. Others to the two testaments The Thargum of the Chaldees commeth neere this later opinion saying God hath spoken one law and wee haue heard it twise out of the mouth of Moyses the great scribe vertue is before our God and thou Lord that thou wouldst be bountifull vnto the iust g For Tullies In his booke de fato following Carneades he setteth down three kinds of causes naturall arising from nature as for a stone to fal downward for the fire to burne Voluntary consisting in the free wills of men wherein it is necessary there be no precedent causes but that they be left free and Casuall which are hidden and vnknown in diuers euents Herein he is of the N◅turalists opinion that will haue nothing come to passe without a cause h Naturall Fire hath no other cause of heate a stone of heauynesse a man of reason procreation of like c. then the will of natures Creator who had hee pleased might haue made the fire coole the stone mount vpwards the man a brute beast or dead or vnable to beget his like i If we may cal Arist de anima l. 3. Putteth will only in reasonable creatures and appetite being that instinct wherby they desire or refuse any thing in beastes Will in creatures of reason is led by reason and accompanied by election or rather is election it selfe k But Cicero With the Stoikes l Our wills are God created our wils free and that because it was his will so they may make choyce of contraries yet cannot go against Gods predestination not questionlesse euer would although they could for sure it is that much might bee done which neuer shal so
extracted as Eusebius saith both out of Sanchoniato proueth also by argument De praeparat Euang. lib. 1. As Augustine doth also here b The mooâ—… also Mac. Sat. 1. alledging Philochorus in Atis that Uenus is the Moone and that men in womens apparell sacrificed to her and women in mens because she was held both Thou heauenly Venus saith Apuleius to the Moone that caused all copulation in the beginning propagating humane original thou art now adored in the sacred oratory of Paphos Transform lib. 11. c Golden apple The goddesses contention about the golden apple is plainer then that it needs my rehersall of Lucifer Pliny saith thus Vnder the Sun is the bright star Venus moouing diurnally and planetarily called both Uenus and Luna in the morning being Sols harbinger she is called Lucifer as the pety-sun and light-giuer of the day at night following the sun she is stiled Uesper as the light continuer and the moones vice-gerent lib. 2. Pithagoras first of all found her nature magnitude and motion Olympiad 4â—… about the yeare of Rome 142. shee is bigger then all the other starres and so cleare that some-times her beames make a shadowe That maketh her haue such variety of names as Iuno Isis Berecynthia c. d In his Kingdome Whence he was driuen by his son Ioue as also from the Capitol that before was called Saturnia vntill it was dedicated to Iupiter Capitolinus e Ioue Vsing Iouis the Latine nominatiue as Tully doth in 6. De republ that happy starre called Ioue f Highest The Zodiake in the 8. Sphere so called of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature euery signe whereof conteyneth diuers bright starres g Certaine motion Perpetually and diurnally once about from East to West in 24. houres making night and day and euer keeping place whereas the Planets are now ioyned now opposite now swift now retrograde which change gaue them the greeke name Planet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 error though they keepe a certaine motion neuerthelesse yet seemingly they erre and wander through their alteration in motion which the Zodiake neuer alters as situate in the 8. Sphere called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Apollo Diana and other select gods called parts of the world CHAP. 16. ANd though they make a Apollo a b wizard a c phisitian yet to making him a part of the world they say he is the Sunne Diana his sister is the Moone and d goddesse of iourneyes So is shee e a Virgin also vntouched and they both beare shafts f because these 2. stars only do send to the earth Vulcan they say is the worlds fire Neptune the water father Dis the earths foundation and depth Bacchus and Ceres seed-gods he to the masculine shee of the feminine or hee of the moysture and shee of the dry part of the seede All this now hath reference to the world to Ioue who is called the full parent generall because hee both begets and brings forth all things seminall And Ceres the great mother her they make the earth and Iuno besides Thus the second cause of things are in her power though Ioue be called the full parent as they affirme him to bee all the world And Minerua because they had made her the artes goddesse and had neuer a starre for her they made her also the sky or g the Moone Vesta they accounted the chiefe of all the goddesses being taken for the earth and yet gaue her the protection of the h worlds fire more light and not so violent as that of Vulcans was And thus by all these select gods they intend but the world in some totall and in others partiall to all as Ioue is partiall as Genius the great mother Soll and Luna or rather Apollo and Diana sometimes one god stands for many things and sometimes one thing presents many gods the first is true in Iupiter hee is all the world hee but onely i Heauen and hee is onely a starre in Heauen So is Iuno goddesse of all second causes yet onely the ayre and yet the earth though shee might k get the starre from Venus So is Minerua the highest sky and the Moone in the lowest sky as they hold The second is true in the world which is both Ioue and Ianus and in the earth which is both Iuno the Great mother and Ceres L. VIVES APollo a Tully de dat deor lib. 3. makes 4. Apollos and 3. Dianas The 3. Apollo and the 2. Diana were the children of Ioue and Latona b Wizard Commonly affirmed in all authors of this subiect Greeke and Latine Plato saith the Thessalonians called him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simple because of his diuination wherein was required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth and simplicity which are all one In Cratilo Glaucus taught him his diuination he that was afterward made a Sea-god and called Melicerta Nicand in Aâ—…tolicis c Phisitian Macrob. Satur. They counted the vestalls thus Apollo phisitiâ—…n Apollo Paean c. He proues him to bee Aesculapius that is a strength of health a rising soly from the substance of animated creatures Much of Apollo yea may read in the said place d Goddesse of Her statues were cut all youthfull because that age beareth trauell lest Festus lib. 9. for Diana was held a goddesse of waies and iournies shee ruled also mountaines and groues and vsed the â—…hes often in her hunting as shal bee shewed hereafter e Virgin So it is reported that it was not lawfull for men to come in her temple at Rome because one rauished a woman there once that came to salute the goddesse and the dogs tare him in peeces immediatly Plato calleth her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because of the integrity and modesty that she professed in her loue of virginity or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because she hath the copulation of man and woman Though the fables go that shee lay with Endymyon and that Pan Mercuries sonne gaue her a white sheepe for 〈◊〉 Uirg 3. Georg. Munere sic niueo lanae si credere digum est Pandeus Archadiae captam te Luna fefellit In Nemora alta vocans nec tu aspernata vocaâ—…tem es c. Arcadian Pans white fleece t is said so blinded Thine eyes faire Phaebe he being breefely minded Call'd the thou yeeldest and to the thicke you went c. f Shaftes Apollo beareth those that hee killed the serpent Python withall and therefore Homer calleth him oftentimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is far-darting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is shooting high and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternall archer Now Diana vowed a perpetuall virgine haunteth the woods and hills hunting as Virgill describeth Uenus when Aeneas saw her buskind and tucked round and a quiuer at her backe as ready for the pursute These shaftes are nothing all say but the beames of those starres as Lactantius saith of the Sonne Armatus radiis elementa liquentia lustrans Armed with raies he vewes
called Golfo De Venetia which the Grecians vsed oftentimes to crosse ouer I wonder that sâ—…e haue held al Italy to be called so because Pliny doth write thus What haue the Greciaâ—…s a most vanie-glorious nation shewne of themselues in calling such a part of Italy Magna Grecia Great Greece Whereby hee sheweth that it was but a little part of Italy that they 〈◊〉 thus Of the 3. baies I spoke of one of them containes these fiue Citties Tarentum Meâ—…us Heraclea Croto and Turii and lieth betweene the promontories of Sales and Laâ—… Mela. It is called now Golfo di Taranto Here it is said Pythagoras did teach c Ioâ—… Ionia is a country in Asia Minor betweene the Lydians the Lycaonians and our sea â—…ing Aeolia and Caria on the sides this on the South-side that on the North Miletus is the â—…se Citty saith Mela both for all artes of warre and peace the natiue soile of Thales the â—…sopher Tymotheus the Musician Anaximander the Naturalist and diuers other whose wâ—…s haue made it famous Thales taught his fellow cittizen Anaximander he his fellow cittizen also Anaximenes hee Anaxagoras of Clazomene Pericles Archelaus and Socrates of Athens and Socrates almost all Athens d Pythagoras Aristoxenus saith hee was of Tyrrheâ—… in â—…e that the Greekes tooke from the Italians hee went into Egipt with King Amasis and râ—…ng backe disliking the tyrannous rule of Polycrates of Samos hee passed ouer to Italy â—…y who also Cicero Tnsc. 5. out of Heraclides of Pontus relateth that Pythagoras beeing â—…ked of Leontes the Phliasian King what hee professed hee answered that whereas the rest of his prosâ—… had called themselues wise men Sophi hee would bee called But a louer of wisdome a Pâ—…pher with a more modest respect of his glory And herevpon the name Sophi grew quite â—…of custome as ambitious and arrogant and all were called Philosophers after that foâ—… indeâ—… the name of wise is Gods peculiar onely f Thales The first Naturalist of Greece 〈◊〉 first yeare of the 35. Olympiad after Apollodorus his account in Laertius g 〈◊〉 A sort of youthes hauing bought at a venture a draught of the Milesian fishers 〈◊〉 â—…awne vp a tablet of gold they fell to strife about it each would haue had it so vnto 〈◊〉 his oracle they went who bad them giue it vnto the wise So first they gaue it vnâ—… 〈◊〉 whom the Ionians held wise he sent it vnto another of the seauen and hee to anâ—… and so till it came to Solon who dedicated it to Apollo as the wisest indeed And these 〈◊〉 had the same of wisdome ouer all Greece and were called the seauen Sages h The otâ—… Chilo of Lecedaemon Pittacus of Mitilene Bias of Priene Cleobulus oâ—… Lindus Periâ—… â—…orynthe and Solon of Athens of these at large in the eighteenth booke i Comâ—… 〈◊〉 Some say that the Astrology of the Saylers was his worke others ascribe it vnto Râ—…â—…f â—…f Samos Laban the Argiue saith he wrote 200. verses of Astrology k Astrologiâ—… Endâ—…s saith hee presaged the eclipses Hist. Astrolog Amongst the Greeks saith Pliny lib. 〈◊〉 Thales in the fourth yeare of the 48. Olympiade was the first that found their 〈◊〉 of eclipses and prognosticated that which fell out in King Halliattes time in the â—…XX yeare after the building of Rome So saith Eusebius and Cicero de diuinat lib. 1. Whâ—…e for Haliattes he writeth Astiages But they liued both at one time and had warres one â—…ith another l Water As Homere calls the sea father of all Plutarch in Placit Philos and oâ—…e giue Thales his reason because the seede of all creatures animate is moist and so is all â—…nt Nay they held that the seas moisture nourisheth and increaseth the stars m Nor did 〈◊〉 Velleius in Tully affirmeth that Thales thought all things to bee made of water and 〈◊〉 the essence that was the cause of all their production is God and Laertius saith that hee 〈◊〉 all things full of Daemones and beeing asked whether the gods knew not a mans euill â—…ds Yes said he and thoughts too But this proues Gods knowledge onely and noâ—… his operation to be auouched by him n Anaximander A Milesian also but not hee that wrote the Histories He held an infinite element was the substance of the production of all things but â—…er shewed whether it was fiery ayry earthly or watry Hee held besides that the partes of 〈◊〉 infinite thinÌ„g were successiuely changed but that the whole was imâ—…utable Aristot. Pluâ—… 〈◊〉 Euseb. o Nor did he Herein Plutarch reprehendeth him for finding the mattâ—… and â—…t the efficient cause For that infinite element is the matter but without some efficient cause it can doe nothing But Tully saith that hee affirmed that there were naturall gods farre distance East and West and that these were their inumerable worlds De nat deor lib. 1. So that these contraries their originall and there efficient are all one namely that eternall cold and heate as Euseb â—…e prâ—…par Euang. saith and Aristotle intymateth Phys. lib. 1. p Anaximenes Sonne to Eurystratus a Mâ—…lesian also borne Olympiad 64. He died in the yeare of Craesus his ouerthrow as Apollodorus counteth q Infinite ayre Infinite saith Eusebius in kinde but not in qualities of whose condensation and rarefaction all things haue their generation Hee held the ayre god generated infinite and eternally mouing The stars the Sunne and the Moone were created hee held of the earth Cicero r Anaxagoras Borne at Clazomene a towne in Ionia he died Olymp. 88. beeing 62. yeares of age His worke saith Plutarch and Laertius beganne thus There was one vniuersall masse an essence came and disioyned it and disposed it For hee held a matter or masse including infinite formes of creation and parcells of contraries and others all confused together which the diuine essence did compose and seperate and so made flesh of many parcells of flesh of bones bone and so of the rest yet are these other parcells formally extant in the whole as in their bones there is parcells of flesh and fire and sinewes c. For should bread or meate giue encrease to a bone or the bloud vnlesse there were seedes or little parcells of bone and bloud in the bread though from their smallenesse they be inuifible Arist. Plutarch Laertius s Vnlike Or like either is right For as Aristotle saith Anaxagoras held infinite partes in euery body both contrary and correspondent which hee called Homogenia or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similaria like Symilarities Gaza translateth it For in bodies they are partes that are similare as in fire water flesh bone c. and here the name of each part is the name of the whole each drop of water is water and each bit of flesh is flesh and so of the rest then are there also partes dissimilar as in a man an horse and so forth wherein are parts seuerally called as bones nerues bloud skin and such
far different manner then that composition of the bodies k The body Vâ—…gil Georg. 4. Aeneid 6. reciteth Pythagoras his opinion singing of God that is the worlds soule whence each one drawes a life at his originall and returnes it at his death But because it may be doubted how all soules haue one originall sence one vnderstandeth better then another and vseth reason more perfectly this difference he held did proceed from the body and not from the soules For these are his wordes Principâ—… Calum at Terras Camposque liquentes â—…temque Globune terrae Titaniaque astra Spâ—…s intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agiâ—…at moleâ—… magno se corpore miscet c. Heauen Earth and Sea each in his proper bound The Moones bright globe and all the spangled round A spirit within doth feed doth mooue and passe Through euery parcell of this spatious masse All â—…hich is explayned at full by Seruius the Gramarian Porphyry confesseth with Pythagoras 〈◊〉 the soule suffereth with the body whose affects good or bad redound in part vnto the 〈◊〉 yet denieth hee that they alter the soules nature De sacrificijs lib. 4. How the platonists conceiued of the naturall part of Phylosophy CHAP. 6. WHerefore ' these Phylosophers whom fame we see hath worthily preferred 〈◊〉 before the rest did wel perceiue that God was a no bodily thing therfore paâ—…â—…rther then al bodies in this inuestigatioÌ„ they saw that no b mutable thing 〈◊〉 and therfore went further then al mutable spirits and soules to seek for 〈◊〉 â—…gain they saw that c al formes of mutable things whereby they are what 〈◊〉 of what nature soeuer they be haue originall from none but him that is 〈◊〉 vnchangeable Consequently neither the body of this vniuerse the fiâ—…â—…alities motions and Elements nor the bodies in them all from heauen to 〈◊〉 â—…her vegetatiue as trees or sensitiue also as beasts or reasonable also as 〈◊〉 those that need no nutriment but subsist by them-selues as the Angels 〈◊〉 being but from him who hath only simple being For in him d to be and 〈◊〉 â—…ffer not as if he might haue being without life neither to liue and to 〈◊〉 â—…d as if he could haue life without intellect nor to vnderstand and to bee 〈◊〉 â—…s if he could haue the one and not the other But his life vnderstanâ—… beatitude are all but his being From this invariable and simple essence 〈◊〉 they gathered him to bee the vncreated Creator of all existence For they 〈◊〉 â—…ed that all thinges are eyther body or life that the e life excelleth the 〈◊〉 â—…hat sensibility is but a species of the body but vnderstanding of the life 〈◊〉 â—…fore they preferred intellect before sence Sensible things are those 〈◊〉 to be seen or touched Intelligible can only be vnderstood by the minde 〈◊〉 is no bodily sweetnesse be it in the body as beauty or in motion as 〈◊〉 â—…ll song but the minde doth iudge therof which it could not doe if this 〈◊〉 â—…ere not in it more excellent then eyther in that quantity of body or 〈◊〉 â—…se of voyces and keeping of tones and times Yet if it were not mutable 〈◊〉 â—…ld not iudge better then another of these sensible species nor one be wittiâ—…â—…inger or more exercised then another but he that began after should 〈◊〉 much as he that learned before and he that profited after should bee vnâ—… from his ignorance before but that which admitteth maiority or minoriâ—… angeable doubtlesse And therfore these learned men did well obserue 〈◊〉 first forme of things could not haue existence in a subiect mutable And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholding degrees of diuersity in the formes of soules and bodies and 〈◊〉 the seperation of al forme from theÌ„ directly destroied theÌ„ this infered aneâ—…ty of some vnchangeable and consequently an all-excelling forme this they 〈◊〉 the beginning of all thinges vncreated all creating exceeding right This 〈◊〉 they knew of God he did manifest vnto them by teaching them the graduâ—…â—…emplation of his parts invisible by his workes visible as also his eternity â—…inity who created all things both visible and temporary Thus much of 〈◊〉 Physiology or naturall Phylosophy L. VIVES GOD a was no body This Alcinous in Plato's doctrine argueth thus If God were a 〈◊〉 hee should haue substance and forme for so haue all bodies being like the Idea's wherein they haâ—…e a secret resemblance But to say God hath substance and forme is absurd for he should â—…thor be the beginning nor vncompounded Therefore hee hath no body Besides euery body is of some substance What then shall GOD bee of fire or ayre earth or water Nor of these are beginnings but rather haue a later being then the substance whereof they consist â—…ut these are blasphemies the truth is GOD is incorporeall If he were a body hee were generated and therefoâ—…e corruptible But farre are those thinges from GOD. Thus farre Alcinous b No mutable Plato in Timaeus calls God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c one the same and alwaies like him-selfe as Tully translates it Alcinous saith hee must needes bee an intelligible substance Of which kind the soule is better theâ—… what is not the soule but the power that is perpetually actual excelleth that which is potentiall such therefore is God c All formes In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Tully others interprete it d To bee and to liue Alcinous saith that God is supreme eternall ineffable selfe-perfect needing nothing eternally absolute Deity cause of all bâ—…ing truth harmony good and all these in one and one For I count them not as dis-ioyned but coessentiall And a little â—…ter he saith that God is incomprehensible onely apparant to the thought but conteyned vnder no kinde what-soeuer not definable nor specificall nor subiect to any accident to say hee is euill were wickednesse and to say hee is good is insufficient for then hee should participate of goodnesse but hee hath neyther difference nor accident This opinion did Dionisius the Diuine follow denying wisedome life or vnderstanding to be in god For these are the names of particular perfections which are not in God This seemes to bee grounded on Plato's wordes in Phadon that all good is such by participation of good but there hee excepteth true good that is doubtlesse God the Idea and essence of all beautifull goodnesse e Life excelleth He cals the soule life as Aristotle doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfection or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing eternally actuall both may bee said of the soule But Plato speaking of soules meaneth it seemes onely the rationall The excellency of the Platonists aboue the rest in logicke CHAP. 7. NOw as concerning the other part of their a doctrine called logicke farre bee it from vs to ioyne them in comparison with those fellowes that fetched the iudgement of truth from the bodily sences and held all things to bee swayed by their false and
and impious foulenesse of these deuills euen for honesties sake for if Plato's prohibition and proofe be iust then is their demand and desire most damnable So either Apulcius mistooke the kind of Socrates his Genius or Plato contradicts himselfe now d honoring those spirits and streight after abridging them their pleasures and expelling their delights from an honest state or else Socrates his spirit was not worth the approuing wherein Apuleius offended in being not ashamed to stâ—…le his booke e De deo Socratis of his god and yet proues by his owne distinction of Dij daemones that hee should haue called it De daemone Socratis of his diuell But this hee had rather professe in the body of his discourse then in his tiâ—…le for the name of a Daemon was by good doctrine brought into such hate that f whosoeuer had â—…ead Daemon in the title ere he had read the Daemons commendations in the booke would haue thought Apuleius g madde And what found he praise-worthy in them but their subtile durable bodies and eleuation of place when hee came to their conditions in generall hee found no good but spake much euill of them so that hee that readeth that booke will neuer maruell at their desiring plaies and that Iuch gods as they should be delighted with crimeâ—… beastly showes barbarous cruelty and what euer else is horrible or ridiculous that all this should square with their affects is no wonder L. VIVES REasonable a Creatures Plato reckoneth three sorts of gods the Deiâ—…yes the Daemones the Heroes but these last haue reference to men whence they arise De leg 4. Epinom Plutarch highly commends thoâ—…e that placed the spirits betwixt gods and men were it Orpheus some Phirgian or Aegiptian for both their sacrifices professeth it De defect oracul for they found the meanes saith he wherein gods and men concurre Homer saith he vseth the names at â—…don how calling them gods and now demones Hesiod fire made reasonable nature quadripartite into gods spirits Heroes and mortalles who liuing well arise both to Heroes and Daemones b The spirits Socrates in Platos Conuiuium mentioneth a disputation with Diotyma where hee affirmeth the spirits nature to bee meane betweene gods â—…nd mans c This power Socrates they say had a spirit that forbad him all acts whose euents it knew should not bee successefull but neuer incited him to any thing whatsoeuer d Honoring Teaching it also Epinom e De deo All that handled this before Apuleius called this spirit a Daemon not a deity him-selfe in aboue six hundreth places in Plato in Plato Zenophon also Cicero and Plutarch Maximus of Tyre who â—…rot a double demonstration hereof So did many other ca lit both Platonists and Philosophers of other nations â—…ecitall were tedious f Whosoeuer Whosoeuer reads the title before the booke ere he read the booke g Madde For the gentiles as then called the Demonyaks and such as were possessed with the deuill mad men That neither the ayry spirits bodies nor height of place make them excell men CHAP. 15. WHerfore God forbad that a soule that feares God should thinke those spirits to excell it because they haue more a perfect bodies So should beasts excel vs also many of which goe beyond vs in quicknes of sence nimblenes swiftnesse strength and long life what man sees like the Eagle or Vultur smells like to the dog is swifter then stags hares and birds strong as a lyon or an elephant or lines with the serpent b that with his skin put of his eares becomes yong again But as we excell these in vnderstanding so do wee the ayrie spirits in iust liuing or should do at least For therefore hath the high prouidence giuen them bodies in some sort excelling ours that we might haue the greater care to preserue and augment that wherein we excell them rather then our bodies and learne to contâ—…ne that bodily perfection which wee know they haue in respect of the goodnesse of life whereby we are before them and shall obtaine immortalitie of body also not for the eternitie of plagues to afflict but which purity of soule shall effect And for the c higher place they hauing the ayre and we the earth it were a ridiculous consequence to make them our betters in that for so should birds be by the same reason d I but birds being tyred or lacking meate come downe to earth to rest or to feede so doe not the spirits Well then will you preferre them before vs and the spirits before them if this bee a mad position as mad a consequence it is to make them excell vs by place whom we can nay must excell by pyety For as the birds of the ayre are not preferred before vs but subiected to vs for the equitie of our reason so though the deuills being higher then wee are not our betters because ayre is aboue earth but we are their betters because our saith farre surmounteth their despaire For Plato's reason diuiding the elements into foure and parting mooueable fire and immooueable earth by interposition of ayre and water giuing each an equall place aboue the other this prooues that the worth of creatures dependeth not vpon the placing of the elements And Apuleius making a man an earthly creature yet preferreth him before the water-creatures whereas Plato puts the water aboue the earth to shew that the worth of creatures is to be discerned by another methode then the posture of naturall bodies the meaner body may include the better soule and the perfecter the worse L. VIVES MOre a perfect Apuleius makes them of a meane temperature betweene earthly and aethereall more pure and transparent then a clowde coagulate of the most subtile parts of ayre and voide of all solidity inuisible vnlesse they please to forme themselues a groser shape b That with his skinne Casting his skinne he begins at his eies that one ignorant thereof would thinke him blind Then gettes he his head bare and in 24. houres putteth it of his whole body Looke Aristot. de gen anim lib. 8. c Higher place Which Apuleius gathers thus No element is voyde of creatures Earth hath men and beasts the water fishes fire some liuing things also witnesse Aristotle Ergo the ayre must haue some also but vnlesse those spirits bee they none can tell what they be So that the spirits are vnder the gods and aboue vs their inferiors our betters d I but birds Apuleius his answer thus Some giue the ayre to the birds to dwell in falsly For they neuer go higher then Olympus top which being the highest mount of the world yet perpendicularly measured is not two furlongs high whereas the ayre reacheth vp to the concaue of the Moones spheare and there the skies begin What is then in all that ayrie space betweene the Moone and Olympus top hath it no creatures is it a dead vselesse part of nature And-againe birds if one consider them well are rather creatures earthly
the priuation thereof The office of this sence neither the 〈◊〉 eare the smell the taste nor the touche can performe By this I know 〈◊〉 â—…ng and I know this knowledge and I loue them both and know that I 〈◊〉 both L. VIVES SO a naturally A Stoicall and Academicall disputation handled by Tully Offic. 1. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoically and De fin 5. Academically b For their Foolishnesse is the greatest 〈◊〉 â—…nd wisdome the good So held the Stoikes c Deeper A diuerse reading the text 〈◊〉 both d Antisthenes the first Cynickes choise His reason was because to reioyce in â—…d minde was base and cast downe the minde from the true state Socrates in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alcibiades that possessions with-out wisdome are not onely fruitlesse but hurtfull e â—…re It is not then our witte or toyle but GODS bountie that instructs vs in the 〈◊〉 â—…ourse of nature and sharpens the iudgement which bounty the good man attaining 〈◊〉 bad must needs bee wiser though lesse learned or popularly acute Therefore saith 〈◊〉 Into an euill soule wisdome will not come The same that Socrates said Onely good men 〈◊〉 f Iust by By a forme left in my minde by seeing iustice done and the due conâ—…â—…ing thereto which be it absent I conceiue what iniustice is by seeing the faire 〈◊〉 â—…ent harmony subuerted I build not vpon hurts violence iniuries or reproches 〈◊〉 no priuations but may be iustly done vpon due command of the magistrate or with â—…ent but vpon this I see the vertues decorum broken Forme is neither to bee taken â—…pes or abstracts of things reserued in the soule and called motions say some Well 〈◊〉 they either want witte or knowledge And because they cannot make them-selues 〈◊〉 by things really extant they must fetch their audiences eares vp to them by pursuing 〈◊〉 non entia this is our schoole-mens best trade now a dayes â—…ther we draw nearer to the image of the holy trinity in louing of that loue by which we loue to be and to know our being CHAP. 28. 〈◊〉 wee haue spoken as much as needeth here of the essence and knowledge 〈◊〉 much we ought to respect them in our selues and in other creatures vnâ—…â—…ough we finde a different similitude in them But whether the loue that 〈◊〉 â—…e them in be loued that is to declare It is loued wee prooue it because it iâ—…â—…d in all things that are iustly loued For hee is not worthily called a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowes good but hee that loues it Why then may wee not loue that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selues whereby wee loue that which is to bee loued They may both 〈◊〉 â—…e man and it is good for a man that his goodnesse increasing his â—…d decrease euen to the perfection of his cure and full change into 〈◊〉 for if wee were beasts wee should loue a carnall sensitiue life 〈◊〉 good would suffice our nature b without any further trouble if 〈◊〉 â—…ees wee should not indeede loue any thing by motion of sence yet should we seeme to affect fruitfulnesse and growth if wee were stones water winde fire or so we should want sence and life yet should we haue a naturall appetiâ—…e vnto our due c places for the d motions of weights are like the bodies loues go they vpward or downwards for weight is to the body as loue is to the â—…ule But because we are men made after our creators image whose eternity is true truth eternall charity true and eternall neither confounded nor seuered we runne through all things vnder vs which could not be created formed not ordered without the hand of the most essentiall wise and good God so through all the workes of the creation gathering from this e more playne and from that lesse apparant markes of his essence and beholding his image in our selues f like the prodigall childe wee recall our thoughts home and returne to him from whom we fell There our being shall haue no end our knowledge no error our loue no offence But as now though wee see these three sure trusting not to others but obseruing it our selues with our certaine interior sight yet because of our selues we cannot know how long they shall last when they shall end whither they shall goe doing well or euill therefore here we take other witnesses of the infallibity of whose credit wee will not dispute here but hereafter In this booke of the Citty of God that was neuer pilgrim but alwayes immortall in heauen being compounded of the Angels eternally coherent with God and neuer ceasing this coherence betweene whom and their darknesse namely those that forsooke him a seperation was made as we said at first by God now will wee by his grace proceede in our discourse already begun L. VIVES FOr that a is loue There is a will in vs arising from the corruption of the body which reason ruleth not as it doth the better will but it haleth it and traileth it to good it flyes all good properly and seeketh euills bodily delights and pleasures These two Paul calleth the law of the flesh the law of the spirit some-times flesh and spirit The first brutish foule hated of good men who when they can cannot expell it they compell and force it vnto Gods obedience otherwise it produceth a loue of things vnmeete b Without Either in this life or vnto our bodies c Places Or orders and formes of one nature the preseruation of which each thing desires for it selfe helping it selfe against externall violence if it bee not hindered d 〈◊〉 of this before the Latine word is momenta e More plaine Our reason plâ—…ceth an Image rather then a marke of God in vs. Man hath the sight of heauen and the knowledge of God bestowed vpon him whereas all other creatures are chained to the earth Wherfore the spirit ouer-looking the creation left his image in our erected nature in the rest whome hee did as it were put vnder foote hee left onely his markes Take this now as a figuratiue speech f Prâ—…digall Luc. 15. Of the Angels knowledge of the Trinity in the Deity and consequently of the causes of things in the Archetype ere they come to be effected in workes CHAP. 29. THese holy Angels learne not of God by sounds but by being present wiâ—… thâ—… â—…geable truth his onely begotten word himselfe and his holy spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of substantiall persons yet hold they not three Gods but one 〈◊〉 this thâ—…y a â—…ow plainer then we know our selues b The creatures also 〈◊〉 they know 〈◊〉 in the wisdome of God the worke-mans draught then in the thingâ—… produced and consequently them-selues in that better then in thâ—…-selues though â—…ing their knowledge in both for they were made are not of 〈◊〉 â—…nce that made them Therefore in him their knowledge is day in 〈◊〉 as we sayd twy-light But the knowledges of a thing by the means 〈◊〉 and the thing it selfe made are farre different c The vnderstanding 〈◊〉 a figure doth produce a perfecter
this subsequent that since they were Egiptians Heauen hath had foure changes of reuolutions and the Sunne hath set twise where it riseth now Diodorus also writteth that from Osyris vnto Alexander that built Alexandria some recken 10000. and some 13000. yeares and some fable that the Gods had the Kingdome of Isis and then that men reigned afterward very neare 15000. yeares vntill the 180. Olympiad when Ptolomy beganne to reigne Incredible was this abâ—… vanity of the Egiptians who to make themselues the first of the creation lied so many thousand yeares Which was the cause that many were deceiued and deceiued oâ—…hers also as concâ—…ning the worlds originall Tully followes Plato and maketh Egipt infinitly old and so doth â—…ristotle Polit 7. g Yeares but Pliny lib. 7. saith the Nations diuided their yeares some by the Sommer some by the Winter some by the quarters as the Archadians whose yeare was three monethes some by the age of the Moone as the Egiptians So that some of them haue liued a thousand of their yeares Censorinus saith that the Egiptians most ancient yeares was two moneths Then King Piso made it foure at last it came to thirteene moneths and fiue daies Diodorus saith that it being reported that some of the ancient Kings had reigned 1200. yeares beeing to much to beleeue they found for certaine that the course of the Sunne beeing not yet knowne they counted their yeares by the Moones So then the wonder of old 〈◊〉 ceaseth some diuiding our yeare into foure as diuers of the Greekes did Diodorus saith also that the Chaldees had monethes to their yeares But to shew what my coniecture is of these numbers of yeares amongst the nations I hold that men beeing so much giâ—…n to the starres counted the course of euery starre for a yeare So that in 30. yeares of the Sâ—…e are one of Saturne fiue of Iupiter sixe of Mars more then 30. of Uenus and Mercury and almost 400 of the Moone So they are in all neare 500. Of those that hold not the eternity of the World but either a dissolution and generation of inumeraâ—…le Worlds or of this one at the eâ—…piration of certaine yeares CHAP. 11. BVt others there are that doe not thinke the World eternall and yet either imagine it not to be one a world but many or b one onely dissolued and regenerate at the date of certaine yeares Now these must needs confesse that there were first men of themselues ere any men were begotten c For they cannot thinke that the whole world perishing any man could remaine as they may doe in those burnings invndations which left still some men to repaire man-kinde but as they hold the world to bee re-edified out of the owne ruines so must they beleeue that man-kinde first was produced out of the elements and from these first as mans following propagation as other creatures by generation of their like L. VIVES NOt to bee one a world Which Democritus and Epicurus held b One onely Heraclytus Hippasus and the Stoickes held that the world should be consumed by fire and then be reâ—…ed c For they cannot Plato and Aristotle hold that there cannot be an vniuersall deluge or burning But the Stoickes as Tully saith beleeued that the World at length should become all on fire and the moisture so dried as neither the earth could nourish the plants nor the ayre be drawn in bredth â—…or produced all the water being consumed So that Plato and Aristotle still reserued 〈◊〉 then for propagation these none but destroied All to re-edifie All. Of such as held Mans Creation too lately effected CHAP. 12. WHerefore our answere to those that held the world to haue beene ab aeterno against Plato's expresse confession though some say hee spake not as hee thought the same shal be our answere still to those that thinke Mans Creation too lately effected hauing letten those innumerable spaces of time passe and by the scriptures authority beene made but so late as within this sixe thousand yeares If the bâ—…ity of time be offensiue and that the yeares since Man was made seeme so few let them consider that a nothing that hath an extreame is continuall and that all the definite spaces of the World being compared to the interminate Trinity are as a very little Nay as iust nothing And therefore though wee should recken fiue or sixe or sixty or six hundred thousand yeares and multiply them so often till the number wanted a name and say then GOD made man yet may we aske why he made him no sooner For GODS pause before Mans Creation beeing from all eternity was so great that compare a definite number with it of neuer so vnspeakeable a quantity and it is not so much as one halfe drop of water being counterpoised with the whole Ocean for in these though the one be so exceeding small and the other so incomparably great yet b both are definite But that time which hath any originall runne it on to neuer so huge a quantity being compared vnto that which hath no beginning I know not whether to call it small or nothing For with-draw but moments from the end of the first and be the number neuer so great it will as if one should diminish the number of a mans daies from the time he liues in to his birth day decrease vntill we come to the very beginning But from the later abstract not moments nor daies nor monethes nor years but as much time as the other whole number contained lie it out of the compasse of all computation and that as often as you please preuaile you when you can neuer attaine the Beginning it hauing none at all Wherefore that which we aske now after fiue thousand yeares and the ouerpâ—…s our posterity may as well aske after sixe hundreth thousand years if our mortallity should succeede and our infirmity endure so long And our forefathers presently vpon the first mans time might haue called this in question Nay the first man himselfe that very day that he was made or the next might haue asked why he was made no sooner But when soeuer hee had beene made this controâ—…ie of his originall and the worlds should haue no better foundation then is 〈◊〉 now L. VIVES NOthing a that Cic. de senect When the extreame comes then that which is past is gone b Both are Therefore is there some propertion betweene them whereas betweene definite and indefinite there is none Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Times at whose expiration some Philosophers held that the Vâ—… should 〈◊〉 to the state it was in at first CHAP. 13. NOw these Philosophers beleeued that this world had no other dissolution 〈◊〉 renewing of it continually at certaine a reuolutions of time wherein the 〈◊〉 of things was repaired and so passed on a continuall b rotation of ages 〈◊〉 and comming whether this fell out in the continuance of one world or the 〈◊〉 arising and falling gaue this succession and date of things by
thinke this place obscure let him looke for no plainenesse in the Scriptures L. VIVES THy a victory Some read contention but the originall is Victory and so doe Hierom and Ambrose reade it often Saint Paul hath the place out of Osee. chap. â—…3 ver 14. and vseth it 1. Cor. 16. ver 55. b When shall death The Cittie of GOD shall see death vntill the words that were sayd of Christ after his resurrection Oh hell where is thy victory may bee said of all our bodies that is at the resurrection when they shal be like his glorified bodie Saint Peters doctrine of the resurrection of the dead CHAP. 18. NOw let vs heare what Saint Peter sayth of this Iudgement There shall come saith hee in the last daies mockers which will walke after their lusts and say Where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers died all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly know not that the heauens were of old and the earth that was of the water and by the water by the word of GOD wherefore the world that then was perished ouer-flowed with the water But the heauens and earth that now are are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire against the day of iudgement and of the destruction of vngodly men Dearcly beloued bee not ignorant of this that one daie with the LORD is as a thousand years and a thousand yeares as one daie The LORD is not flack concerning his promise as some men count slackenesse but is pacient toward vs and would haue no man to perish but would haue all men to come to repentance But the daie of the LORD will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the heauens shall passe awaie with a noyse and the elements shall melt with 〈◊〉 and the earth with the workes that are therein shal be burnt vppe Seeing therefore all these must bee dissolued what manner of persons ought you to bee in holy conuersation and Godlinesse longing for and hasting vnto the comming of the daie of GOD by the which the heauens beeing on fire shal be dissolued and the elements shall melt vvith heate But vve-looke for a nevv heauen and a nevv earth according to his promise vvherein dvvelleth righteousnesse Thus sarre Now here is no mention of the resurrection of the dead but enough concerning the destruction of the world where his mention of the worlds destruction already past giueth vs sufficient warning to beleeue the dissolution to come For the world that was then perished saith hee at that time not onely the earth but that part of the ayre also which the watter a possessed or got aboue and so consequently almost all those ayry regions which hee calleth the heauen or rather in the plurall the heauens but not the spheres wherein the Sunne and the Starres haue their places they were not touched the rest was altered by humidity and so the earth perished and lost the first forme by the deluge But the heauens and earth saith hee that now are are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire against the daie of iudgement and of the destruction of vngodly men Therefore the same heauen and earth that remained after the deluge are they that are reserued vnto the fire afore-said vnto the daie of iudgement and perdition of the wicked For because of this great change hee sticketh not to say there shal be a destruction of men also whereas indeed their essences shall neuer bee anniâ—…e although they liue in torment Yea but may some say if this old heauen and earth shall at the worlds end bee burned before the new ones be made where shal the Saints be in the time of this conflagration since they haue bodies and therefore must be in some bodily place We may answere in the vpper parts whither the fire as then shall no more ascend then the water did in the deluge For at this daie the Saints bodies shal be mooueable whither their wills doe please nor need they feare the fire beeing now both immortall and incorruptible b for the three children though their bodies were corruptible were notwithstanding preserued from loosing an haire by the fire and might not the Saints bodies be preserued by the same power L. VIVES THe a water possessed For the two vpper regions of the ayre doe come iust so low that they are bounded with a circle drawne round about the earthlie highest mountaines tops Now the water in the deluge beeing fifteene cubites higher then the highest mountaine it both drowned that part of the ayre wherein wee liue as also that part of the middle region wherein the birds do vsually flie both which in Holy writ and in Poetry also are called Heauens b The three Sidrach Misach and Abdenago at Babilon who were cast into a â—…nace for scorning of Nabuchadnezzars golden statue Dan. 3. Saint Pauls words to the Thessalonians Of the manifestations of Antichrist whose times shall immediately fore-runne the day of the Lord. CHAP. 19. I See I must ouer-passe many worthy sayings of the Saints concerning this day least my worke should grow to too great a volume but yet Saint Pauls I may by no meanes omit Thus sayth he Now I beseech you bretheren by the comming of our LORD IESVS CHRIST and by our assembling vnto him that you bee not suddenly mooued from your minde nor troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as if it were from vs as though the day of CHRIST were at hand Let no man deceiue you by any meanes for that day shall not come except there come a a fugitiue first and that that man of sinne bee disclosed euen the sonne of perdition which is an aduersary and exalteth himselfe against all is called god or that is worshipped so that he sitteth as God in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Remember yee not that when I was yet with you I told you these things And now yee know what withholdeth that he might be reuealed in his due time For the mistery of iniquity doth already worke onely he which now withholdeth shall let till he be taken out of the way and the wicked man shal be reuealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall abolish with the brightnesse of his comming euen him whose comming is by the working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all deceiuablenesse of vnrighteousnesse amongst them that perish because they receiued not the loue of the truth that they might be saued And therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue lyes that all they might bee damned which beleeue not in the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse This is doubtlesse meant of Antichrist and the day of iudgement For this day hee saith shall not come vntill that Antichrist be come before it he that is called here a fugitiue
they shall be so reioyned againe that neither time nor torment shall bee able to procure their seperation Wherefore though our flesh as now bee such that it cannot suffer all paine without dying yet then shall it become of another nature as death also then shal be of another nature For the death then shal be eternall and the soule that suffereth it shall neither bee able to liue hauing lost her God and onely life nor yet to avoide torment hauing lost all meanes of death The first death forceth her from the body against her will and the second holds her in the body against her will Yet both are one in this that they enforce the soule to suffer in the body against her will Our opponent will allow this that no flesh as now can suffer the greatest paine and yet not perish but they obserue not that there is a thing aboue the body called a soule that rules and guides it and this may suffer all torment and yet remaine for euer Behold now here is a thing sensible of sorrow and yet eternall this power then that is now in the soules of all shal be as then in the bodies of the damned And if wee weigh it well the paines of the bodie are rather referred to the soule The soule it is and not the body that feeles the hurt inflicted vpon any part of the bodie So that as wee call them liuing and sensitiue bodies though all the life and sense is from the soule so likewise doe wee say they are greeued bodies though the griefe bee onely in the soule So then when the bodie is hurt the soule grieueth with the bodie When the minde is offended by some inward vexation then the soule greeueth alone though it bee in the bodie and further it may greeue when it is without the bodie as the soule of the ritch glutton did in hell when hee sayd I am tormented in this flame But the bodie wanting a soule grieueth not nor hauing a soule doth it grieue without the soule If therefore it were meete to draw an argument of death from the feeling of paine as if wee should say hee may feele paine ergo he may die this should rather inferre that the soule may die because it is that which is the feeler of the paine But seeing that this is absurd false how then can it follow that those bodies which shal be in paine shall therefore bee subiect vnto death Some d Platonists hold that those parts of the soule wherein feare ioye and griefe were resident were mortall and perished wherevpon Virgill sayd Hinc metuunt cupiuntque dolent gaudent hence that is by reason of those mortall parts of the soule did feare hope ioye and griefe possesse them But touching this wee prooued in our foureteenth booke that after that their soules were purged to the vttermost yet remained there a desire in them to returne vnto their bodies and where desire is there griefe may bee For hope beeing frustate and missing the ayme turneth into griefe and anguish Wherefore if the soule which doth principally or onely suffer paine bee notwithstanding e after a sort immortall then doth it not follow that a body should perish because it is in paine Lastly if the bodie may breed the soules greefe and yet cannot kill it this is a plaine consequent that paine doth not necessarily inferre death Why then is it not as credible that the fire should grieue those bodies and yet not kill them as that the body should procure the soules ◅nguish and yet not the death Paine therefore is no sufficient argument to proue that death must needs follow it L. VIVES THere is a no body A common proposition of Aristotle Plato Epicurus Zeno Cicero Seneca all the ancient Philosophers b Whether the deuills The Platonists dispute among thēselues whether the bodies of the Damones haue feeling Some say thus the feeling lieth onely in the Nerues and sinewes The Daemones haue now sinewes ergo Others as the old Atheists say that the feeling is not in the sinewes but in the spirit that engirteth them which if it leaue the sinew it becommeth stupid and dead therefore may the bodies of these Daemones both feele and be felt and consequently bee hurt and cut in peeces by a more solid body and yet notwithstanding they doe presently reioyne and so feele the lesse paine though they feele some the more concrete and condensate that their bodies are the more subiect are they to suffer paine and therefore they doe some of them feare swords and threatnings of casting them downe headlong Mich. Psell. and Marc. Ch◅rrones Hence it is perphaps that Virgil maketh Sibylla bid Aeneas draw his sword when they went downe to hell Aeneid 6. c Uiolence Paine saith Tully Tusc. quaest 2. is a violent motion in the body offending the sences which if it exceede oppresseth the vitalls and bringeth death whether it arise of the super-abundance of some quality of the bodie of heate moysture the spirits the excrements or of the defect of any of them or ab externo which three are generally the causes of paine d Some Platonists Aristotle affirmes as much De anima lib. e After a sort For it was not from before the beginning and yet shal be euerlasting it shall neuer be made nothing though it shall suffer the second death and endure eternally dying Natures testimonies that bodies may remaine vndiminished in the fire CHAP. 4. IF therefore the a Salamander liue in the fire as the most exact naturalists record and if there bee certaine famous hills in b Sicily that haue beene on fire continually from beyond the memory of man and yet remaine whole vnconsumed then are these sufficient proofes to shew that all doth not consume that burneth as the soule prooueth that all that feeleth paine doth not perish Why then should we stand vpon any more examples to prooue the perpetuity of mans soule and body without death or dissolution in euerlasting fire and torment That GOD that endowed nature with so many seuerall and c admirable qualities shall as then giue the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure paine and burning for euer Who was it but hee that hath made the flesh of a d dead Peacock to remaine alwaies sweete and without all putrefaction I thought this vnpossible at first and by chance being at meate in Carthage a boyled Peacock was serued in and I to try the conclusion tooke of some of the Lyre of the breast and caused it to be layd vp After a certaine space sufficient for the putrefaction of any ordinary flesh I called for it and smelling to it found no ill taste in it at all Layd it vp againe and thirty daies after I lookt againe it was the same I left it The like I did an whole yeare after and found no change onely it was somewhat more drie and solide Who gaue such cold vnto the chaffe that it will keepe snow vnmelted in it and withall
such heate that it will ripen greene apples who gaue the fire that wonderfull power to make althings that it burneth blacke it selfe beeing so bright and to turne a shining brand into a black coale Neither doth it alwaies thus For it will burne stones vntill they bee white and though it bee redde and they whitish yet doth this their e white agree with the light as well as blacke doth with darkenesse Thus the fire burning the wood to bake the stone worketh contrary effects vpon obiects which are f not contrary For stone and wood are different but not opposite whereas white and blacke are the one of which collours the fire effecteth vpon the stone and the other vpon the wood enlighting the first and darkening the later though it could not perfect the first but by the helpe of the later And what strange things there are in a cole it is so brittle that a little blow turnes it to powder and yet so durable that no moysture corrupteth it no time wasteth it so that they are wont to g lay coales vnder bounders and marke-stones for lands to conuince any one that should come hereafter and say this is no bound-stone What is it that maketh them endure so long in the earth where wood would easily rot but that same fire that corrupteth althings And then for lyme besides that it is whitened by the fire it carieth fire in it selfe as taken from the fire and keepeth it so secret that it is not discouerable in it by any of our sences nor knowne to bee in it but by our experience And therefore wee call it quick lyme the inuisible fire beeing as the soule of that visible body But the wonder is that when it is killed it is quickned For to fetch out the fire from it wee cast water vpon it and beeing could before that enflameth it that cooleth all other things beeing neuer so hot So that the lumpe dying as it were giueth vppe the fire that was in it and afterward remaineth cold if you water it neuer so and then for quicke-lyme wee call it quenshed lyme What thing can bee more strange yes If you power oyle vpon it in stead of water though oyle bee rather the feeder of fire yet will it neuer alter but remaine cold still If wee should haue heard thus much of some Indian stone that wee had not nor could not get to proue it wee should surely imagine it either to bee a starke lie or a strange wonder But things occurrent vnto dailie experience are debased by their frequency in so much that wee haue left to wonder at some-things that onely India the farthest continent of the world hath presented to our viewe The diamond is common amongst vs chiefly our Iewellers and Lapidaries and this is i so hard that neither fire stone nor steele can once dint it but onely the bloud of a goate But doe you thinke this hardnesse so much admired now as it was by him that first of all descried it Such as know it not may peraduenture not beleeue it or beleeuing it one seeing it may admire it as a rare worke of nature but dayly triall euer taketh off the edge of admiration Wee know that k the loade-stone draweth Iron strangely and surely when I obserued it at the first it made mee much agast For I beheld the stone draw vppe an Iron ringe and then as if it had giuen the owne power to the ring the ring drew vppe an other and made it hang fast by it as it hung by the stone So did a third by that and a fourth by the third and so vntill there was hung as it were a chaine of rings onelie by touch of one another without any inter-linking Who would not admire the power in this stone not onely inherent in it but also extending it selfe through so many circles and such a distance Yet stranger was that experiment of this stone which my brother and fellow Bishoppe Seuerus Bishoppe of Mileuita shewed me Hee told mee that hee had seene Bathanarius some-times a Count of Affrica when hee feasted him once at his owne house take the sayd stone and hold it vnder a siluer plate vpon which hee layd a peece of Iron and still as hee mooued the stone vnder the plate so did the Iron mooue aboue the plate not moouing at all and iust in the same motion that his hand mooued the stone did the stone mooue the Iron This I saw and this did I heare him report whom I will beleeue as well as if I had seene it my selfe I haue read further-more of this stone that l lay but a diamond neare it and it will not draw Iron at all but putteth it from it as soone as euer the diamond comes to touch it These stones are to bee found in India But if the strangenesse of them bee now no more admired of vs how much lesse doe they admire them where they are as common as our lyme whose strange burning in water which vseth to quensh the fire and not in oyle which feedeth it we doe now cease to wonder at because it is so frequent L. VIVES THe a Salamander Of this creature you may read in Aristotle and Pliny I haue written of it else-where It quensheth fire with the touch and is in shape like a Lizart b In Sicily As Aetna and Hiera commonly called Volcania as also in Theon Ochema in Aethiope Vesuuius in Campania Chimaera in Lycia and in certaine places about Hercules pillers besides Hecla in Island c. c Admirable qualities Truely admirable for they are easie to bee wondered at but most intricate to bee searched out d A dead peacock Many of these examples here are beyond reason and at the most but explanable by weake coniectures which wee will omit least wee should seeme rather to oppose Saint Augustine then expound him e White agree It is a light collour and offends the eye as much as the light black is the darkest and strengthens the power visuall like the darkenesse f Not contrary Contraries are two opposites of one kinde as blacke and white both collours moist and drie both qualities c. but Substances haue no contraries in themselues g To lay coales As Ctesiphon did vnder the foundations of Diana's temple in Ephesus Plin. lib. 36. I thinke it should be Chersiphron and not Clesiphon For so say all the Greekes and Strabo lib. 14. h Quick lyme Sen. Nat. quaest li. 3. i So hard that neither Plin. lib. vlt. cap. 4. Notwithstanding Bernard Ualdaura shewed me diamonds the last yeare that his father broake with a hammer But I thinke they were not Indian nor Arabian diamonds but Cyprians or Syderites for there are many sorts k The Load-stone Hereof reade Pliny lib. 36. cap. 16. Sotacus maketh fiue sorts of it the Aethiopian the Macedonian the Baeotian the Alexandrian and the Androlitian This last is much like siluer and doth not draw Iron There is a stone saith Pliny called the Theamedes
iust opposite in nature to the loade-stone expelling all Iron from it l Lay but a diamond Plin. lib. vlt. m In India And in other places also But in India they say there are Rocks of them that draw the ships to them if they haue any Iron in them so that such as saile that way are faine to ioyne their ships together with pinnes of wood Of such things as cannot bee assuredly knowne to bee such and yet are not to be doubted of CHAP. 5. BVt the Infidels hearing of miracles and such things as wee cannot make apparant to their sence fall to aske vs the reason of them which because it surpasseth our humane powers to giue they deride them as false and ridiculous but let them but giue vs reason for all the wondrous things that wee haue seene or may easily see hereafter which if they cannot doe then let them not say that there is not nor can bee any thing without a reason why it should bee thus seeing that they are conuinced by their owne eye sight I will not therefore runne through all relations of authors but try their cunning in things which are extant for any to see that will take the paines a The salt of Agrigentum in Sicily beeing put in fire melteth into water and in water it crackleth like the fire b The Garamantes haue a fountaine so cold in the day that it cannot bee drunke oft so hot in the night that it cannot bee toucht c In Epyrus is another wherein if you quensh a toarch you may light it againe thereat The Arcadian b Asbest beeing once enflamed will neuer bee quenshed There is a kinde of fig-tree in Egypt whose wood e sinketh and being throughly steeped and the heauier one would thinke it riseth againe to the toppe of the water The apples of the country of f Sodome are faire to the eye but beeing touched fall to dust and ashes The Persian g Pyrites pressed hard in the hand burneth it wherevpon it hath the name h The Selenites is another stone wherein the waxing and waning of the Moone is euer visible The i Mares in Cappadocia conceiue with the winde but their foales liue but three yeares The trees of k Tilon an I le in India neuer cast their leaues All these and thousands more are no passed things but visible at this daie each in their places it were too long for mee to recite all my purpose is otherwise And now let those Infidels giue mee the reason of these things those that will not beleeue the scriptures but hold them to bee fictions in that they seeme to relate incredible things such as I haue now reckned Reason say they forbiddeth vs to thinke that a body should burne and yet not bee consumed that it should feele paine and yet liue euerlastingly O rare disputers You that can giue reason for all miraculous things giue mee the reasons of those strange effects of nature before named of those fewe onely which if you knew not to bee now visible and not future but present to the viewe of those that will make triall you would bee l more incredulous in them then in this which wee say shall come to passe hereafter For which of you would beleeue vs if wee should say as wee say that mens bodies hereafter shall burne and not consume so likewise that there is a salt that melteth in fire and crackleth in the water of a fountaine intollerably hot in the night and intollerably cold in the day or a stone that burneth him that holdeth it hard or another that beeing once fired neuer quensheth and so of the rest If wee had sayd these things shal be in the world to come and the infidells had bidden vs giue the reason why wee could freely confesse wee could not the power of GOD in his workes surpassing the weakenesse of humane reason and yet that wee knew that GOD did not without reason in putting mortall man by these past his reason Wee know not his will in many things yet know wee that what hee willeth is no way impossible as hee hath told vs to whome wee must neither impute falsenesse nor imperfection But what say our great Reasonists vnto those ordinary things which are so common and yet exceed all reason and seeme to oppose the lawes of nature If wee should say they were to come then the Infidells would forth-with aske reason for them as they doe for that which wee say is to come And therefore seeing that in those workes of GOD mans reason is to seeke as these things are such now and yet why no man can tell so shall the other bee also hereafter beyond humane capacity and apprehension L. VIVES THe a salt Hereof read Pliny lib. 21. b The Garamantes Plin. lib. 5. Neare vnto this fountaine is Hammons well of which you may read more in Diodorus Lueret Mela Ouid Silius Solinus c. c In Epirus Pomp. Mela lib. 2. and Plin. lib. 2. It is called the fountaine of Iupiter Dodonaeus d Asbest A stone of an Iron collour Plin. l 38. e Sinketh Plin. lib. 13. cap. 7. f Sodome Fiue citties perished in the burning of Sodome Sodome Gomorrha Adama Seborin and Segor whereof this last was a little one but all the rest were very large Paul Oros. hereof you may read in Solinus his Polyhistor as also of these apples Tacitus seemeth to giue the infection of the earth and the ayre from the lake for the reason of this strange effect vpon the fruites lib. vltimo Vide Hegesip lib. 4. Ambros. interprete g Tyrites So saith Pliny lib. vlt. Pur in greeke is fire Some call the Corall pyrites as Pliny wittnesseth lib. 36. but there is another Pyrites besides of the collour of brasse h The Selenites Plin. lib. vlt. out of Dioscorides affirmeth this to bee true i Mars So saith Solinus in his description of Cappadocia And it is commonly held that the Mares of Andaluzia doe conceiue by the south-west winde as Homere Uarro Columella Pliny and Solinus Plinies Ape doe all affirme k Tilon Pliny and Theophrastus affirme that it lieth in the read sea Pliny saith that a ship built of the wood of this Island will last two hundered yeares lib. 16. l More incredulous For some will beleeue onely what they can conceiue and hold althings else fictions nay some are so mad that they thinke it the onely wisedome to beleeue iust nothing but what they see despising and deriding the secrets of GOD and nature which are wisely therefore concealed from the vulgar and the witlesse eare All strange effects are not natures some are mans deuises some the deuills CHAP. 6. PErhaps they will answere Oh these are lies wee beleeue them not they are false relations if these be credible then beleeue you also if you list for one man hath relared both this and those that there was a temple of Venus wherein there burned a lampe which no winde nor water could euer quensh so that it was called the
what reasonable man doth not seee that in that greatest likenesse and most numerous multitude of one worke of nature the face of man there is such an admirable quality that were they not all of one forme they should not distinguish man from beast and yet were they all of one forme one man should not bee knowne from another Thus likenesse and difference are both in one obiect But the difference is most admirable nature it selfe seeming to exact an vniformity in the proportion thereof and yet because it is rarieties which wee admire wee doe wonder farre more when wee see two c so like that one may bee easily and is often-times deceiued in taking the one for the other But it may bee they beleeue not the relation of Varro though hee bee one of their most learned Historians or doe not respect it because this starre did not remaine long in this new forme but soone resumed the former shape and course againe Let vs therefore giue them another example which together with this of his I thinke may suffice to conuince that God is not to bee bound to any conditions in the allotting of particuler being to any thing as though he could not make an absolute alteration thereof into an vnknowne quality of essence The country of Sodome was whilom otherwise then it is now it was once like the rest of the land as fertile and as faire if not more then the rest in so much that the Scripture compareth it to Paradise But being smitten from lieauen as the Paynim stories themselues record and all trauellers couâ—… me it now is as a field of foote and ashes and the apples of the soyle being faire without are naught but dust within Behold it was not such and yet such it is at this day Behold a terible change of nature wrought by natures Creator and that it remaineth in that foule estate now which it was a long time ere it fell into So then as God can create what hee will so can hee change the nature of what he hath created at his good pleasure And hence is the multitude of monsters visions pertents and prodigies for the particular relation whereof here is no place They are called d monsters of Monstro to shew because they betoken somewhat And portents and prodiges of portendo and porrò dico to presage and fore-tell some-what to enshew But whether they or the deuills whose care it is to inueigle and intangle the minds of the vnperfect and such as deseâ—…ve it do delude the world either by true predictions or by stumbling on the truth by chance let their obseruers interpreters looke to that But we ought to gather this from all those monsters prodigies that happen or are said to happen against nature as the Apostle implied when he spake of the e engraffing of the wild Oliue into the Garden Oliue whereby the wild one was made partaker of the roote and fatnesse of the other that they all do tell vs this that God will do with the bodies of the dead according to his promise no difficulty no law of nature can or shall prohibit him And what hee hath promised the last booked declared out of both the Testaments not in very great measure but sufficient I thinke for the purpose and volume L. VIVES VEnus a with Here of already Some call this starre Uenus some Iuno Arist. De mundo Some Lucifier some Hesperus Higin lib. 2. It seemeth the biggest starre in the firmament Some say it was the daughter of Cephalus and â—…rocris who was so faire that she contended with Uenus and therefore was called Uenus Eratasthen It got the name of Lucifer and Hesperus from rising and setting before and after the Sunne Higinus placeth it aboue the Sunne the Moone and Mercury following Plato Aristotle the Egiptians and all the Old Astronomers b Hesperus So doth Cynna in his Smirna Te matutinis flentem conspexit Eous Et flentem paulo vidit post Hesperus idem The day-starre saw thy cheekes with teares bewet So did it in the euening when it set That this was both the day-starre and the Euening-â—…arre Pythagoras or as some say Parmenides was the first that obserued Plm. lib. 2. Suidas c Two so like Such two twins had Seruilius Cie Acad. Quaest 4. Such were the Menechmi in Pluatus supposed to be whome their very mother could not distinguish such also were the Twins that Quintilian declameth of And at Mechlin at this day Petrus Apostotius a Burguer of the towne mine host hath two toward and gratious children so like that not onely strangers but euen their owne mother hath mistooke them and so doth the father like-wise to this day calling Peter by his brother Iohns name and Iohn by Peters d Monsters Thus doth Tully expound these words De diuinat e Engraffing The wild oliue is but a bastard frute and worse then the other but it is not the vse to engraffe bad slips in a better stocke to marre the whole but good ones in a bad slocke to better the fruit So that the Apostles words seeme to imply a deed against nature Of Hell and the qualities of the eternall paines therein CHAP. 9. AS God therfore by his Prophet spake of the paines of the damned such shall they be Their worme shall not die neither shall their fire be quenshed Our Sauiour to coÌ„mend this vnto vs putting the parts that scandalize a maÌ„ for mans right members and bidding him cut them of addeth this better it is for thee to enter into life maimed then hauing two hands to go into Hell into the fire that neuer shal be quenshed where their worme dieth not and their fire neuer goeth out and likewise of the foote Better for thee to goe halting into life then hauing two feete to bee cast into Hell c. And so saith he of the eye also adding the Prophets words three seuerall times O whom would not this thunder from the mouth of God strike a chill terror into sounding so often Now as for this worme and this fire they that make them only mental paines do say that the fire implieth the burning of the soule in griefe and anguish that now repenteth to late for being seuered from the sight of God after the maner that the Apostle saith who is offended and I burne not And this anguish may be meant also by the worme say they as it is written As the moth is to the garment and the worme to the wood So doth sorrow eate the heart of a man Now such as hold them both mentall and reall say that the fire is a bodily plague to the body and the worme a plague of conscience in the soule This seemeth more likely in that it is absurd to say that either the soule or body shal be cleare of paine yet had I rather take part with them that say they are both bodily then with those that say that neither of them is so and therefore
disgrace banishment death and bondage which of these can be performed in so little time as the offence is excepting a the fourth which yeelds euery man the same measure that hee meateth vnto others according to that of the law An eye for an eye and a toâ—…th for a tooth Indeed one may loose his eye by this law in as small a time as hee put out another mans by violencâ—… 〈◊〉 is a man kisse another mans wife and bee therefore adiudged to bee whipt is not that which hee did in a moment paid for by a good deale longer sufferance is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure repaide with a longer paine And what for imprisonâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ry one iudged to lye there no longer then hee was a doing his villaâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seruant that hath but violently touched his maister is by a iust law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many yeares imprisonment And as for damages disgraces and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not many of them darelesse and lasting a mans whole life wherâ—… be 〈◊〉 a proportion with the paines eternall Fully eternall they cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life which they afflict is but temporall and yet the sinnes they 〈◊〉 are all committed in an instant nor would any man aduise that the contiâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 penalty should be measured by the time of the fact for that be it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or what villany so-euer is quickly dispatched and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be weighed by the length of time but by the foulenesse of the crime 〈◊〉 for him that deserues death by an offence doth the law hold the time that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ing to bee the satisfaction for his guilt or his beeing taken away from the fellowship of men whether That then which the terrestriall Citty can do by the first death the celestiall can effect by the second in clearing her selfe of malefactors For as the lawes of the first cannot call a dead man back againe into their society no more do the lawes of the second call him back to saluation that is once entred into the second death How then is our Sauiours words say they With what measure yee mete with the same shall men mete to you againe if temporall sinnes be rewarded with eternall paines O but you marke not that those words haue a reference to the returning of euill for euill in our nature and not in one proportion of time that is hee that doth euill shall suffer euill without limitation of any time although this place be more properly vnderstood of the iudgments and condemnations whereof the Lord did there speake So that he that iudgeth vniustly if he be iudged vniustly is paid in the same measure that hee meated withall though not what he did for he did wrong in iudgment and such like he suffreth but he did it vniustly mary he is repaid according to iustice L. VIVES EXcepting the a fourth This was one of the Romanes lawes in the twelue tables and hereof doth Phauorinus dispute with Sep. Caecilius in Gellius lib. 20. The greatnesse of Adams sinne inflicting eternall damnation vpon all that are out of the state of Grace CHAP. 12. BVt therefore doth man imagine that this infliction of eternall torment is vniustice because his fraile imperfection cannot discerne the horriblenesse of that offence that was the first procurer thereof For the fuller fruition man had of God the greater impiety was it for him to renounce him and therein was hee worthy of euer-lasting euill in that he destroyed his owne good that otherwise had beene euerlasting Hence came damnation vpon all the stock of man parent and progenie vnder-going one curse from which none can be euer freed but by the free and gracious mercy of God which maketh a seperation of mankinde to shew in one of the remainders the power of grace and in the other the reuenge of iustice Both which could not bee expressed vpon all man-kinde for if all had tasted of the punishments of iustice the grace and mercy of the redeemer had had no place in any and againe if all had beene redeemed from death there had beene no obiect left for the manifestation of Gods iustice But now there is more left then taken to mercy that so it might appeare what was due vnto all without any impeachment of Gods iustice who not-withstanding hauing deliuered so many hath herein bound vs for euer to praise his gracious commiseration Against such as hold that the torments after the iudgement shall bee but the meanes whereby the soules shall bee purified CHAP. 13. SOme Platonists there are who though they assigne a punishment to euery sinne yet hold they that all such inflictions be they humaine or diuine in this life or in the next tend onely to the purgation of the soule from enormities Where-vpon Virgil hauing said of the soules Hinc metunt cupiuntque c. Hence feare desire c And immediatly Quin vt supremo cum lumine vita reliquit Non tamen omne malâ—…m miseris nec funditùs omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes penitùsque necesse est Multa diù concreta modis inolescere miris Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt aliae panduntur inanes Suspensa ad ventos aliis sub gurgite vasto Insectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni For when the soules do leaue the bodies dead Their miseries are not yet finished Nor all their times of torment yet compleate Many small crimes must needes make one that 's great Paine therefore purgeth them and makes them faire From their old staines some hang in duskie ayre Some in the deepe do pay the debt of sinne And fire is chosen to cleanse others in They that hold this affirme that no paines at all are to be suffered after death but onely such as purge the soules and those shall be cleared of all their earthly contagion by some of the three vpper elements the fire the ayre or the water The ayre in that he saith Suspensae ad ventos the water by the words Sub gurgite vasto the fire is expresly named aut exuritur igni Now indeed wee doe confesse that there are certaine paines during this life which do not properly afflict such as are not bettred but made worse by them but belong onely to the reforming of such 〈◊〉 take them for corrections All other paines temporall and eternall are laid vpon euery one as God pleaseth by his Angells good or bad either for some sinne past or wherein the party afflicted now liueth or else to excercise and declare the vertue of his seruants For if one man hurt another a willingly or by chance it is an offence in him to doe any man harme by will or through ignorance but God whose secret iudgement assigned it to be so offendeth not at all As for temporall paine some endure it heere and some here-after and some both here and there yet all is past before the last iudgement But all shall not come into these eternall paines which not-with-standing shall bee
yeares of discretion and is capable of good counsel then must he begin a fierce conflict with vices least it allure 〈◊〉 to damnation Indeede the fresh-water soldiour is the more easily put to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practise will make him valourous and to persue victory with all his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he must euermore assay by a weapoÌ„ called the a loue of true righâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…is is kept in the faith of Christ for if the command be present and the 〈◊〉 absent the very forbidding of the crime enflameth the peruerse flesh to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…er into it sometimes producing open enormities and sometimes b sectes ones farre-worse then the other in that pride and ruinous selfe conceit perswadeâ—… 〈◊〉 that they are vertues Then therfore sin is quelled when it is beaten downe by they loue of God which none but he and that he doth only by Iesus Christ the mediator of God and man who made him-selfe mortall that we might bee made eternall few are so happy to passe their youth without taynt of some damnable sinne or other either in deed opinion or so but let them aboue all seeke to suppresse by the fullnesse of spirit all such euill motions as shall be incited by the loosenesse of the flesh Many hauing betaken them-selues to the law becomming preuaricators thereof through sinne are afterwards faine to fly vnto the law of grace assistant which making them both truer penitents and stouter opponents subiecteth their spirits to God and so they get the conquest of the flesh Hee therefore that will escape hell fire must be both Baptized and iustified in Christ and this is his only way to passe from the Deuill vnto him And let him assuredly beleeue that there is no purgatory paines but before that great and terrible iudgement Indeede it is true that the fire of Hell shal be c more forcible against some then against others according to the diuersity of their deserts whether it be adapted in nature to the quality of their merits or remaine one fire vnto all and yet bee not felt alike of all L. VIVES THe a loue of This made Plato aduise men to vse their children onely to vertuous delights and to induce a hate of bad things into their mindes which were it obserued out loue would then be as much vnto vertue as now it is vnto carnall pleasures for custome is another nature and a good man liketh vertue better then the voluptuary doth sensuality b Secret ones far worse Plato hauing feasted certaine Gentlemen spread the Roome with mats and dressed his banqueting beds handsomely In comes Diogenes the Cynicke and falls presently a trampling of the hangings with his durty feete Plato comming in why how now Diogenes quoth he Nothing said the other but that I tread downe Platoes Pride Thou dost indeed saith Plato but with a pride farre greater for indeed this was a greater vaine-glory and arrogance in Diogenes that was poore then in Plato that was rich and had but prepared these things for his friends So shall you haue a many proud beggers thinke them-selues holyer then honest rich men onely for their name sake as if God respected the goods and not there mindes They will not be ritch because they thinke their pouerty maketh them more admired Diogenes had wont to doe horrible things to make the people obserue him and one day in the midst of winter hee fell a washing himselfe in a cold spring whither by and by there gathred a great multitude who seeing him pittied him and praied him to for-beare O no saith Plato aloud if you will pitty him get yee all gone for he saw it was not vertue but vaine-glory that made him do thus c More forcible According to the words of Christ 〈◊〉 â—…be easier for Tyre and Sydon c. Of some Christians that held that Hells paines should not be eternall CHAP. 17. NOw must I haue a gentle disputation with certaine tender hearts of our own religion who thinke that God who hath iuâ—… doomed the damned vnto 〈◊〉 fire wil after a certaine space which his goodnesse shal thinke fit for the merit of each mans guilt deliuer them from that torment And of this opinion was a Origen in farre more pittiful manner for he held that the diuells themselues after a set time 〈◊〉 should bee loosed from their torments and become bright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…hey were before But this and other of his opinions chiefly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…-volution of misery and blisse which hee held that all 〈◊〉 should runne in gaue the church cause to pronounce him Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had lost this seeming pitty by assigning a true misery after a while and 〈◊〉 blisse vnto the Saints in heauen where they if they were true could neuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to â—…aine But farre other-wise iâ—… their tendernesse of heart which â—…old that this freedome out of hell shall onely be extended vnto the soules of the 〈◊〉 after a certaine time appointed for euery one so that all at length shall 〈◊〉 to bee Saints in heauen But if this opinion bee good and true because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the farther it extendeth the better it is so that it may as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freedome of the deuills also after a longer continuance of time Wâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it with man kinde onely and excludeth them â—…ay but it dares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they dare not extend their pitty vnto the deuill But if any one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goâ—… beyond them and yet sinneth in erring more deformedly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ly against the expresse word of GOD though hee thinke to shew the more pitty herein L. VIVES ORigen a in Periarch lib. Of this already b Include the freedome So did Origen 〈◊〉 likewise made good Angels become deuills in processe of time according to his imaâ—… circum-â—… Of those that hold that the intercession of the Saints shallsaue all men from damnation CHAP. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with some that seeme to reuerence the Scriptures and yet are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who would make God farre more mercifull then the other For as 〈◊〉 the wicked they confesse that they deserue to bee plagued but mercy shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hand when it comes to iudgement for God shall giue them all 〈◊〉 the prayers and intercession of the Saints who if they prayed for them 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 ouer them as enemies will doe it much more now when they 〈◊〉 prostrate aâ—… their feete like slaues For it is incredible say they that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy when they are most holy and perfect who prayed 〈◊〉 theyr foes when they were not with-out sinne them-selues Surely then they 〈◊〉 pray for them being now become their suppliants when as they haue no 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 left in them And will not God heare them when their prayers haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then bring they forth the testimony of the Psalme which the 〈◊〉 that held the sauing of all the damned after a time doe alledge also but 〈◊〉 that it maketh more for them the words are these Hath God forâ—…
5. 44. Abbot Agatho Ancid 4. Virg. Aâ—…g log 8. Apuleius accused of Magick Magike forbidden The elements chaiâ—…ed The deuills habâ—…ion Rom 1. 21. 22. 23. Isay 19 1 Luc. 1. Luc. 1. Mat 16. â—…6 Mat 8. 29 Spirits and deuills called into Images Psal. 96. 1. Cor. 1. 8. 4. How man doth make the deuill god The deuills benefâ—…es hurtfull De Philosoph Orac. Malice The Martires memory succeeded the Idols Mercuries tombe The Necia plaâ—…es Three Aesculapiâ—… The Crocodile The Mercury Hermopolis Trismegistus Cypâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Martires not to be adored Plaies of the passion of Iesus Christ vnlawfull The Louanists want this Isis. Ceres Wheate put barley out of credit In coÌ„uiuio Daemones Dâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pasâ—… An history of a Philosopher thaâ—… was in a stoâ—… at sea 〈◊〉 of 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phantasie Opinion Affects how 〈◊〉 man Pyey 〈◊〉 Angells why called after the affect that their offices releâ—…e Tâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subâ—…s â—…o pasâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Circian colours Apuleâ—… his description of maâ—… The deuills miserable immortality Plotine Eudemonâ—… Genâ—… Lareâ—… 〈◊〉 The golden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemon Lâ—…res Lemures Maâ—…s The diâ—… eternally miserable Enuy. Phil 2. God not polluted by being present vnto wise men God incoÌ„prehensible God is to be partly knoâ—…ne of his creatures God assumed man All this commenâ—…ary the Lovanists do lâ—…aue quite out Daemon vsed alway in the scripture on the worst part 〈◊〉 â—…t it is 〈…〉 Daemâ—… Maâ—… 1. â—…4 Math 4. Christs miracles Temptation The diuels knowledge The diuels oâ—…en decemed Loue of fâ—…e obiâ—…s The certâ—…y of Gods wâ—… â—…s 50. 1. Pâ—… 130. 2. â—…s 95 3. â—…s 96 4 5. Mar. 1. 24. Ps. 82. 6. Men called Gods Why. Cor 1. 8. ver 5. 6 The diuelâ—… not to be worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods seruants Laâ—… Dulâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. 17 Mat. 5. 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psa. 116. 12 13. Râ—…ligon The sum of â—…lle eligion Neighbors who bee they Our friend our second selfe Psal. 15. 2 Psa. 51 16 17. 〈◊〉 Psal. 50 1â—… 13. Ver. 14 15 Mich. 6 6 7. 8 Heb. 13. 16 Mercy â—…el 30. 23 Rom. 12 1 Verse 2. Psam â—…3 28 The christâ—…ans sacrifice The sacrament of the altar Psal. 87. 2 Gen. 17 1â—… Gen. 21 Genâ—…s Geâ—… 9 Exod. 14 Exod. 15 â—…od 23 The Teletae Goetia Magike Pharmacy Theurgy Plato's law Platos gods Psellus his Daemones Porphyries gods The deuills apparitions 2. Cor. 11. 14 Proâ—… Lib. 2. Chaeremon Porphyryes 〈◊〉 of the gods that loue sacrifices Isis. Osyris Man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All time 〈◊〉 to God 〈◊〉 33 〈◊〉 Whether the Fathers â—…aw God or no. Heb 2. 2. Io 5 37. Exo. 33. 20 veâ—…se 23. Lycurgus Mâ—… 6. 2â—… 29. 30. Godâ—… proâ—… Periurgikes Tâ—… 〈◊〉 excell the Pagans The angels 〈◊〉 god Procurare Actius Naeuius Augur The 〈◊〉 â—…pent Claudia a Vestall Iuglerâ—… Illusionâ—… Aâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—…e 〈◊〉 Exod. 13. â—…os 4. Ios. 6. 1 Kingâ—… 5. The diuels vvorke vvonders for their vvorship Ps. 72. Offices The Angels refuse honours Apoc. 19. Acts. 〈◊〉 The church a sacrifice Hovv The Martâ—…rs the diuels conquerers Heroes and Semigods 〈◊〉 Heâ—… Rapâ—… Proseâ—…p lib. 2. Scipio African Sin onely â—…euers man from God Exorcisme Porphyry his opinion of the Trinity Heed must bee had of discourse of the Trinity The Sabellian Heretikes Whether the Phylosophers kneâ—… the â—…inity Serapis his answere Plotine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 24. Pride 〈◊〉 one from light of the mistery of redemption Io. 1. 14. Io. 6. 60. Io. 8. 25. The 〈◊〉 â—…s 73. 28. Ps. 83. The flesh is cleansed by the heart Rom. 8. 24. Christ 〈◊〉 vpon hâ—…m whole mâ—…n Virgil. Eâ—… 4. The Theurgikes cannot purge or cleanse 〈◊〉 spâ—… 1. Cor. Abd. 1. Esay 33. The wisdome of the word foolishnesse Amelita Plato's opinion of thâ—… worlds creaâ—…on The Kings lâ—…gh way Genes 22 Psalm 60 Iohn 14 Esay 2 Luk. 24 A recâ—…pitulation of the former ten bookâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…7 2 〈◊〉 4â—… 1 〈◊〉 â—…6 How God speaketh vnto man No Godhead of the sonnes waisted in his assumption of man Faith concernes things inuisible Sensâ—… To see Whether the world be created Mâ—…odorus 〈◊〉 Time Eternity Gal. 4. 26. Knowledge of a creature Gods rest not personall but efficient Iob. 38. 7â—… Vnitie in 〈◊〉 Religious phrases God â—…ly 〈◊〉 〈…〉 A pure conscience Ioh. 8. 44. 〈◊〉 1. 3. 8. Thâ—… 〈◊〉 Iohn 8. 44 Psâ—… 17. 16. 〈◊〉 â—…4 12 〈◊〉 28. 13. 〈◊〉 15. Iob. 40. Psal. 104 Good 〈◊〉 better 〈◊〉 bad Angells Iob. 40 〈◊〉 â—…ill Câ—… 1 6 7 8 9 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Louvaine copie defectiue Gen 1. 4. 5. Darknes Gen. 1. Plato The iust cause of the worlds creation Nothing â—…aturaly â—…ell Questons in the consideration of nature The holy spirit 〈◊〉 persoâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Louâ—…aine copy defectiue The parts of a vvorke man Vse Fruit. Fruitiâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wâ—… 1â—… The number of sixe Pro. 24. 16. The number of â—…auen Ps. 104. Mat. 18. 10. A beginning Iohn 13. Ps. 104. 30. Eph. 5. 8. Iameâ—… 4. Gen. 1. Ps. 95. Waters aboue heauen Elements how commixtures The seat of the brayne God the onely immutable good To adhere vâ—…o God Exod. 3. Essence Apoâ—…a Gods enemies Vice and 〈◊〉 Exod. 8 Natures absolute excellence euen in things that punish man Punishment of malefactor in the sunne The goodnesse of fire Salamander Eccl. 10. Psal. 19. The diuine essence neuer can faile Tâ—… inordinate loue of things bad not the things â—…selues The fall from good the cause of euill Psal. 73. The creation of the Angells Eze. 28. 12 The dgreeâ—… of grace The Egiptian yeares The Greeke histories 〈◊〉 thâ—…n the Egiptianâ—… in the computation of the Monarchies The liberty that the old wriâ—…ers vsed in computation of time The monthly years Nothing coâ—…uall that hath an extreame Ecc. 1. 9. 10 Rom 6. 〈◊〉 Thess. 4. Psal. 12. 7. Reuolution of times Isâ—… 65. 17. God eternall Psal. 11. Rom. 11. 14 Wisâ—… 3. Times 〈◊〉 12 〈◊〉 2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they are Arguments against the creation of things in time 2. Cor. 10 1â—… Gods vvorking his resting 〈◊〉 Number 〈◊〉 Wâ—… 11 17 Mâ—… 10 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genes 〈◊〉 Psal. 148 Secula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True felicity Our life 〈◊〉 to death Rom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The goodnesse of obedience Disâ—… amongst men vvorâ—… Gen. 2. Breathing in his face 1. Cor. 11. Angells the creators of nothing Angells Gods deputies and â—…rs Gen. 1. 〈◊〉 Cor. 37. 1. Cor. 1538 Hier. 1. Pliâ—…ib 8. A child like a dâ—…uill Iohn Lamuza Womens longing that are with child Alexandria Psal. 46. 8. In Timaeo Mariage commended in the creation Psa. 25. 10 The Louaynists are deafe on this side but not blind they can see to leaue out all this The forsaking of God â—…e death of the soule Maâ—… 10. 28 Death by sinne Psal 49 â—…0 Infants weaker theâ—… the young of any other creature Why death remaineth after baptisâ—… Gen. 2.
which is not God for the worship of it selfe is wicked That Varro his doctrine of Theologie hangeth no way together CHAP. 28. THerefore what is it to the purpose that so learned a man as Varro hath endeuoured to reduce all these gods to heauen and earth and cannot they slip from his fingers and fall away do what he can for being to speake of the goddesses seeing that as I said quoth he in my first booke of the places there are obserued two beginninâ—…s of the gods producing deities celestiall and terrestriall as befoâ—…e being to speake of the masculine gods we began with heauen concerning Ianus called heauen or the world so now of the feminine beginning with the earth Tellus I see how sore so good a witte is already plunged Hee is drawne by a likelyhood to make heauen the agent and earth the pacient therefore giueth the first the masculine forme and the latter the feminine and yet vnderstandeth not that hee that giueth those vnto both these two made them both And here-vpon he interpreteth a the Samothratians noble mysteries so saying that hee will lay open such things thereof to his nation as it neuer knew this he promiseth most religiously For he saith be hath obserued in Images that one thing signifieth earth another heauen another the abstracts of formes b Plato's Ideae hee will haue Ioue to bee heauen Iuno earth Minerua the Ideas Heauen the efficient earth the substance Idea the forme of each effect Now here I omit to say that Plato ascribed so much to these formes that he saith heauen doth nothing without them but it selfe was made by them This I say that Varro in his booke of the Select gods hath vtterly ouerthrowne this distinction of those three Heauen hee placeth for the masculine for tâ—…e feminine earth amongst which he putteth Minerua that but now was aboue heauen And Neptune a masculine God is in the sea therefore rather in earth then heauen Father Dis or c Pluto a male-god and their brother he is also in earth vpmost and Proserpina his wife vnder him How can those heauen-gods now be earth-gods or these earth-gods haue roomes aboue or reference to heauen what sobriety soliditie or certaintie is in this discourse And earth is all their mother that is serued with nothing but sodomy cutting and gelding Why then doth he say Ianus the gods chiefe and Tellus the goddesses where error neither alloweth one head nor furie a like time why goe they vainely about to referre these to the world e as if it could be adored for the true God the worke for the maker That these can haue no reference thether the truth hath conuinced referre them but vnto dead men deuills and the controuersie is at an end L. VIVES THe a Samothracians Of these gods I haue already spoken They are Heauen and earth Iâ—…e and Iuno that are the great Samothracian gods Uarro de ling. lat l. 4 And Minerua also To these three the stately temple of the Capitoll was dedicated In Greeke it is not well knowne who these Samothracian gods were Apollonius his interpretor hath these words they call the Samothracian gods Cahiri Nnaseas saith that their names are Axierus that is Ceres 〈◊〉 Proserpina Aziocersus father Dis and Mercury their attendant as Dionysodorus saith Aâ—…n saith that Ioue begotte Iasion and Dardanus vpon Electra The name Cabeiri serues to deriue from the mountaines Caberi in Phrygia whence these gods were brought Sâ—…e sâ—…y these gods were but two Ioue the elder and Dionysius the yonger Thus farre hee Hee that will read the Greeke it beginneth at these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now Iasion they say was Ceres sonne and called Caberus the brother of Dardanus others say laâ—… loued and lay with Ceres and was therefore slaine by thunder Hee that will read more of the Cabeiri let him go to Strabo lib. 10. b Plato's Idaea So called of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forme or shape for hee that will make a thing first contemplateth of the forme and fitteth his worke therein A Painter drawes one picture by another this is his Idaea and therefore it is defined a forme of a future acte The Ideae of all things are in God which in framing of the world and cach part thereof hee did worke after and therefore Plato maketh three beginnings of all the minde that is God the worker the matter or substance of the world and the forme that it is framed after And God saith he in his Tymeus had an Idea or forme which hee followed in his whole fabricke of nature So that not onely the particuler spaces of the world but the 〈◊〉 heauen and the whole vniuerse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had the beginning from an Idea They are eâ—…all vncorporall and simple formes of things saith Apuleius Dogmat. Platon and from hence had God the figures of all things present and future nor can more the one Idea bee â—…nd in one whole kinde of creature according to which all of that kinde are wrought as 〈◊〉 of wâ—…e Where these Idea's are is a deeper question and diuersly held of the Platonists of that here-after c Pluto Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gaine Dis in Latine quasi diues ritche for out of the 〈◊〉 bowels his treasurie do men fetch vp stones of worth and mettalls And therefore was â—…e said to dwell vnder the land of Spaine as Strabo saith because there was such store of mettalâ—…es corne cattle and meanes of commodity d One head for Ianus had two heads Cybels Prieâ—…s were mad e As if it or which if they could no godly person would worship the world That all that the Naturalists referre to the worlds parts should be referred to God CHAP. 29. FOr this their naturall theologie referreth all these things to the world which would they auoide scruple of sacriledge they should of right referre to the true God the worlds maker and creator of all soules and bodies Obserue but this we worship God not heauen nor earth of which a two parts of the world conâ—…h nor a soule or soules diffused through all the parts thereof but a God that made heauen and earth and all therein he made all creatures that liue brutish sencelesse sensitiue and reasonable b And now to runne through the operations of this true and high GOD briefly which they reducing to absurd and obscene mysteries induced many deuills by We worship that God that hath giuen motion existence and limits to each created nature that knowes conteines and disposeth of all causes that gaue power to the seedes and reason to such as hee vouchsafed that hath bestowed the vse of speech vpon vs that hath giuen knowledge of future things to such spirits as he pleaseth and prophecieth by whom he please that for mans due correction ordereth and endeth all warres worldly tribulations that created the violent and vehement fire of this world for the temperature of